Aamir Khan’s ‘Ghajini’ Is The First Film To Enter Rs 100 Crore Club

With the end of the millennium ended the trend of a film’s success measured by a film running consecutively in a single theatre. The introduction of multiplexes started the new trend of measuring a film success. A film now was declared a hit if it collected Rs 100 crore at the box-office in less number of days at cinema houses. The ‘First’ film to achieve this landmark was Aamir Khan‘s action thriller Ghajini (2008) which collected Rs 100 crore at the box office in just 18 days (less than three weeks).

 

A remake of Tamil film by the same name, when South director A R Murugadoss narrated the script to Aamir Khan, he was impressed by the script and nodded for the film. However, before doing the film, Aamir Khan toned his body to achieve the impossible eight-pack abs in the action-packed murder mystery. The coach of Aamir Khan informed that it took Aamir Khan 13 months to get the right body shape. Daily for 3 hours, Aamir did a rigorous workout and did practice for non-stop 13 months. Aamir followed a strict diet. Thus a combination of workout, diet, and absolute dedication transformed a normal health Aamir Khan into a stunning bodybuilder.

 

Once he was in the right shape, Aamir poured the right emotion to play the character of Sanjay Singhania, a business tycoon devastated by the rare disease of Anterograde Amnesia after his girlfriend is killed by villains. How he takes revenge made the film gripping to watch.

 

In terms of inflation adjustment, the first Indian film to earn Rs 100 crore (adjusted) is Zindagi (1940) staring 40’s superstar K.L. Saigal. The film was produced by Birendranath Sircar and directed by Pramathesh Barua.

 

Similarly, the first Indian film to gross an adjusted Rs 100 crore overseas was the Raj Kapoor‘s Awaara. The film became a blockbuster in Russia. Awaara was directed by Raj Kapoor, written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, and had Raj Kapoor, Nargis and Prithviraj Kapoor in the lead. Besides an excellent story, the music of the film was the main highlight of Awaara. The title soon Awaara Hoon…. became a craze not only in India but all over the world. In Russia, the song was sung on the streets!!