Salman Khan is one of the top three stars of Bollywood. Many rate him a notch higher than the two other supremos, Aamir Khan and shahrukh khan. Salman is now 51 and has been in Mumbai film world for close to three decades. He has built up an image of the macho star and his last film "Sultan" where he played the role of a wrestler was a stupendous hit.
Salman always releases a film during Eid and this year he slated the release of his film "Tubelight" on this auspicious day. The film had an added attraction in the shape of Chinese Star Zhu-Zhu as well a cameo role by Shahrukh Khan.
The film has not set the box office charts ablaze. Eid has not been lucky for Salman this time. The Salman Khan film has failed to be a super hit and is slowly fading away from the screens. The film has barely collected 100 crores ( $10 million). Much of this collection is from the overseas market. The relative failure of the film has disappointed the Chinese heroine who canceled her trip to India, the Times of India reported.
Lack of success
One of the reasons for the lack of success of the film is that Salam gave up his macho image. In this film, he had a softer role which is something the Indian masses did not appreciate. The story line also had an effect. Set in the background of the 1962 India-China war the film was expected to ignite the people's interest.
There is an India - China face-off in Sikkim and both armies are facing each other. China is an enemy in the eyes of the Indian people and releasing a film like "Tubelight" during this period was not the best thing to do. Despite Zhu-Zhu looking lovely, this has not affected the fortune of the film.
The film brought in poor returns from the first day of its release.
An earlier Indo-Chinese film " Kung FuYoga" also flopped in India.Salman may have hoped that the Eid festival will be his savior but the crowds did not come.The fact is the film tanked at the box office and has almost vanished from the Indian screens.
Distributors suffer heavy losses
The producers have not suffered a loss as they sold the film to distributors on the superstar's name but the distributors have lost millions of dollars and have suffered massive losses.
Many have requested Salman for a refund but such things don't happen in the film industry. Most distributors have not recovered even half their investment.
Salman Khan is unfazed and he has started concentrating on the release of his next film " Tiger Zinda Hai" (Tiger is alive) starring his ex-girlfriend Katrina Kaif. He will be hoping that he can recover his lost ground. Another failure at the box office will harm his image immensely.
