Advertisement
This Day That Hit: This day saw the release of a lot of iconic films, with the most memorable ones being Sholay, Tere Naam and Ek Tha Tiger. Basically, the day saw the release of films starring 3 of the biggest superstars of Indian Cinema, and all of them proved to be successful ventures. Talking about Sholay first, it is rightly known as the biggest blockbuster of Indian cinema. The film directed by Ramesh Sippy starred Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Hema Malini and Jaya Bachchan in lead and it rewrote all existing records at the Box-Office. The movie proved to be an all-time grosser by a humongous margin and raked in approximately Rs 15 to 16 crore in India.
The film sold more than 10 crore tickets back then, and still holds the record of being the film that got highest footfalls alongside Mughal-E-Azam. Back then, there was no transparency in terms of numbers and the success of films was gauged by the number of weeks it ran in cinema halls. And Sholay back then also emerged as one of the longest running films in history of Indian cinema.
Advertisement
While a lot of people in the trade initially tried to pull down the film by calling it a flop, it went on to earn more than Rs 1.00 crore at all territories in India thereby setting records all across. The movie was written by iconic writer duo, Salim-Javed, and alongside the star-cast, even the duo was one of the major selling point of the film. An interesting point to note here is the fact that Dharmendra was the first superstar to be signed on for the film and it was the legendary actor who recommended Amitabh Bachchan’s name to essay the character of Jai. The movie was slammed by the critics back then, but the audience reaction was extraordinary. Be it the music, dialogues or action, the film had everything in the right proportion to command a positive word of mouth. In-fact, Sholay is one of the very few films wherein all the characters got one iconic line, which is remembered even today. Although Rs 15.00 crore might seem to be a small number in today’s time, back then it was a huge sum given the fact that the ticket rates were extremely low. The lifetime record of Sholay stood for more than 18 years, which in itself proves how historic the film was.
Advertisement
The second release on this day was Tere Naam starring Salman Khan in lead. The movie is considered to be one of the most iconic film of Salman Khan’s career and the pre-release hype surrounding the film had to be witnessed to be believed. Khan had become a trendsetter as a lot of people in India started sporting the Radhe Mohan hairstyle. The film took a bumper opening in India wherein police security was provided at several cinema halls due to unprecedented demand for the tickets from the crowd. The movie eventually ended up being a successful film, however the hype did die down after the initial euphoria. The film ended up earning approximately Rs 15 crore in India, which was much lesser than the expectations but none the less it has managed to get a cult status among the audience today.
The third release on this day was Ek Tha Tiger. The film starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif in lead was Khan’s first association with YRF and the pre-release hype surrounding the film was probably the best that any film has been this decade. The movie opened to an unprecedented response in India as it raked in Rs 33 crore, thereby emerging the biggest opener of all time by shattering the previous record by a margin of 50%. The movie ended up being the second biggest blockbuster of all time after 3 Idiots, and proved to be the highest grossing film of Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif’s career. The film is one of those rare films in the modern era that took a near 100% opening across India, and total credit to the same goes to Salman Khan’s star-power which was backed by an unanimously loved teaser trailer. The movie raked in Rs 199 crore at the Box-Office in India and as mentioned above was a blockbuster.
Advertisement
Advertisement
