Salman’s Midas Touch: From Reckless Contents To Box Office Tango

From the skinny and long haired days to the shirtless sexiest tag, time has been ever generous to Salman. His score from the blockbuster Maine Pyar Kiya (in his second film itself) to the very recent Dabangg sequel, there seems to be no dip in the entertainer’s fortune and popularity. But a downright sharp turn is visible in the current trend of Salman’s movies’ content. Many would say anything sells in Bollywood and ‘Bhai’ is the perfect tradesman to make ‘nothing’ work to Box Office thunders. And for the fact, his recent releases, has seen a sharp deterioration in their subject matter, the sole focus on the persona surrounding Salman only.

It is no wonder that Hindi films have always been partial to the sole hero figure for uplifting its chances at the BO and Salman worshipping is no stranger to it. But, it becomes an unusual situation when Salman’s content wise superior and successful movies like Hum Aaapke Hain Kaun, Pyar Kiya Toh Darna Kiya, Tere Naam, get surpassed by his latter absurd and thoughtless films like Ready, Bodyguard, Ek Tha Tiger and most recently Dabangg 2.

Even when the full on action masala comedy Wanted (2009), a remake, recorded a huge success at the BO, its content was still reasonable. The confrontation scenes of the film between Salman and villain Prakash Raj worked up superb timings and Salman’s antics with his action settled for a fulsome package. Salman’s next big thing ‘Dabanng’ turned his tide as his value jumped by leaps and bounds smashing all records. With Dabangg, the Salman frenzy reached enormous heights and the brand Salman became omnipresent suddenly. But the adulation was equally acceptable given the rave performance of the actors, superb characterizations of Chedi Singh, Chulbul Pandey, super hit music and overtly entertaining subject of the film. Similarly, Salman fever and mass appeal made his later movies like Ready and Bodyguard runway hits even with their menial subject matter and implausible techniques. The Kabir Khan directed Ek Tha Tiger, was the next of Salman’s reckless success stories. The film became the second highest grossing Hindi movie next to 3 Idiots only after weeks of its release. The film may offer the much awaited pairing of Katrina Kaif and Salman but it fails drastically content wise. Where 3 Idiots stands as a marvel to the fine nuances of exemplary film making, Ek Tha Tiger is nothing more than a farce. But it’s only the sheer support of Salman’s fans, which made the film a crashing hit and has helped him continue his larger than life presence.

Riding on the Salman bandwagon, Dabangg 2 managed to smash the cash registers despite it being an inept successor to its epic precursor, Dabangg. With an inefficient and loopy storyline and weak music score, the film offers nothing refreshing. And despite disrupting all logic, the film has secured a cozy position amongst the top earning films’ listings. Overriding content flaws, Salman mania has been continuing with Bhai’s Midas touch. A hurricane of sorts, he has whipped up more than 700 plus crores in only 3-4 years at the box office. Even Salman’s association with the reality show Big Boss as the presenter made the TRPs jump double. The string of successes especially in his later years has not just congealed Salman’s position as the most bankable BO formula but has made the filmy business a multiple crore fixture.

The relentless hit maker achieved another feat earlier this year, clinching a mammoth deal of about 500 crores with a private channel just by selling the broadcast rights of his films releasing between the periods 2013 to 2017. And given the statistics it wouldn’t be wrong on our part to rightfully coin Salman as the ‘Baap of BO’ given his uncanny ability to make the stale bread sell like sausage with superfluous returns. The trend of reckless contents will continue to rule only because of the exuding charm, aura and the unhindered mass allure of the man we know as Salman Khan.