One has heard of mass hysteria. But what one saw in the case of Karan Johar’s Agneepath on the opening day – Thursday, January 26 – was mass and class hysteria. The public, belonging to any and every social strata, seemed to have gone mad over the remake of Agneepath of 1990. In spite of multiplexes screening the new Agneepath in upto 15 and 20 shows a day, it recorded full houses throughout the day or almost so! The opening day record held by Bodyguard so far was broken, that too, by a fair margin. As against the first day’s collection of Rs. 21.5 crore in the case of Salman Khan’s Bodyguard, Agneepath collected Rs. 23 crore nett from all-India!
With this, it is a foregone conclusion that Hrithik Roshan will become the fifth hero to join the Rs. 100-crore club because it shouldn’t be long before Agneepath touches the magical figure of Rs. 100 crore. So far, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Ajay Devgan are the only heroes whose films have crossed the century mark. Aamir has two 100-crore films to his credit – Ghajini and the all-time blockbuster, 3 Idiots. Salman made it to the club with Dabangg and fortified his position with two more 100-crore films last year, viz. Ready and his and last year’s biggest, Bodyguard. Shah Rukh gained entry into the club with Ra.One and quickly followed it up with Don 2. Ajay Devgan’s solo blockbuster, Singham, made it to the 100-crore club last year but before that, his multi-starrer, Golmaal 3, had also crossed the coveted figure.
No doubt, Sanjay Dutt would also have to be given credit for Agneepath reaching the 100-crore mark in the days to come, but the fact remains that he plays a villain in it and the film is, after all, a solo-hero film and so, cheers to Hrithik Roshan for that! While on Dutt, it must be mentioned that his get-up and performance are winning the highest praise for him from classes and masses alike. Probably, Sanjay Dutt mustn’t have got so much adulation for his villainy even in Khal-nayak, another landmark film in which he played the evil man for the first time.
Komal Nahta, the Editor of Koimoi.com, is Bollywood’s most trusted trade analyst & film reviewer. You can follow him on Twitter and check out his Video Blog.
Tags: Agneepath Boxoffice Hrithik Roshan Priyanka Chopra Rishi Kapoor Sanjay Dutt