7 Years of Salman Khan's All-Time Blockbuster Bajrangi Bhaijaan

Mumbai, July 17 - Exactly 7 years ago on this date, Bajrangi Bhaijaan was released in the cinemas and went on to become one of the biggest blockbusters ever and one of the greatest films ever made. Bajrangi Bhaijaan starred superstar Salman Khan as a titular character who was the reigning box office god of that time, and with Bajrangi Bhaijaan, his stardom reached a pinnacle that was never seen before by any star. His run from Dabangg to Bajrangi Bhaijaan had witnessed 7 blockbusters in 8 films with Jai Ho being the only exception.

Bajrangi Bhaijaan was directed by Kabir Khan who earlier directed Salman Khan in a blockbuster espionage-thriller "Ek Tha Tiger". Both "Ek Tha Tiger" and "Bajrangi Bhaijaan" remain the only blockbusters in the repertoire of Kabir Khan.



Released on 17th July 2015, Bajrangi Bhaijaan had a pre-eid release but still, the film opened to a packed house across the nation. The centers which were not hit by pre-eid opened to a bumper response due to the star pull of Salman Khan. The film recorded more than 27cr net on the first day making it one of the biggest openers of that time and the second highest of the year 2015 after Salman Khan's own Prem Ratan Dhan Payo which clocked over 40cr on the first day.

The word of mouth of Bajrangi Bhaijaan was super-positive and as a result, the film created history on the second and the third day of its run by raking over 36cr and 38cr net box office collections respectively. The third day of Bajrangi Bhaijaan was the highest single-day record ever then by beating Aamir Khan's blockbuster PK.

Bajrangi Bhaijaan was also the first film that collected 100cr net collections in the first weekend (first-three days) only. Till now there have been only 6 films that have crossed 100cr net collections in the first weekend and out of which 4 films are Salman Khan starrers - Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Sultan, Tiger Zinda Hai, and Race3. Prem Ratan Dhan Payo came close to 100cr but missed it by a few lakhs only though if you add all version collections then even Prem Ratan Dhan Payo reached the benchmark.



The comedy-drama also created the first-week record overtaking Aamir Khan's PK. Bajrangi Bhaijaan broke every initial record being a social-drama genre is the credit to the star power of Salman Khan. In the final lifetime collections, Bajrangi Bhaijaan fell a little short of breaking PK's record of 340cr but Bajrangi Bhaijaan sold more tickets (footfalls) than PK making it a bigger hit. It was the 2nd biggest hit of the last decade after Dangal which sold 3.69cr tickets as far as Hindi films are concerned and overall Bajrangi Bhaijaan was the 3rd biggest hit in the Hindi belts after Baahubali2 and Dangal.

Bajrangi Bhaijaan was also released in China and saw an unprecedented success thereby collecting almost 500cr collections there. The worldwide total of the film was just a little short of the prestigious 1000cr club. To date, only Dangal, Baahubali2, RRR, and KGF2 have clocked more than 1000cr worldwide business but most of them are recent releases and if you adjust the worldwide footfalls of Bajrangi Bhaijaan with today's ticket prices then the value of the film will be more than 1100-1200crs.

There have been very few films in the history of the Hindi cinema which broke box office records and stood by the taste of the time which is a definition of a classic film patronized by a huge section of audiences and Bajrangi Bhaijaan is one such great example of that. The second part of the film is tentatively titled Pawan Putra Bhaijaan and It will roll after the current lineup of Salman Khan.

Stay tuned...