On the 35th day of its running, Sultan is set to enter the Rs. 300 Crore Club. Till Sunday, the film had collected Rs. 299.74 crore. With Rs. 26 lakhs more needed to be added, it is pretty much expected that between yesterday and today, this distance would be covered as well. That would ensure that one of the biggest milestones ever for an Indian film would be achieved by the entertainer that has been loved by mass as well as class.
The film arrived amidst huge hype and was in the news ever since its announcement. The promo had fetched great response as well, something that was the case for Ali Abbas Zafar's last film Gunday, which was again backed by Yash Raj Films. Though the presence of superstar Salman Khan along with Anushka Sharma had ensured that a good opening was on the cards, unveiling of Vishal-Shekhar's music had turned out to be another positive, courtesy 'Baby Ko Bass Pasand Hai' and 'Jag Ghoomeya'.
There were a few murmurs though around how the eventual product would look like. After all, Ali Abbas Zafar was just entering the big league and had a huge responsibility on his shoulders to hit it out of the part in his third film itself. Well, the youngster delivered, and how, as the film - riding on the stardom of Salman Khan - went beyond just the opening numbers but also fetched an all around positive response from the cine-goers. The film continued to make records for the best weekend and best week, and went on to earn quickest Rs. 100 crore, Rs. 150 crore, Rs. 200 crore and Rs. 250 crore.
It did start slowing down after this feat though and this was the first time when doubts started emerging around whether Rs. 300 crore would be a possibility or the film would fall Rs. 5-10 crore short. As a matter of fact there was no absolute clarity around the eventual milestone that the film would manage to hit even when Rs. 280 crore was crossed. However, slowly but steadily, the film continued to march along and with Great Grand Masti failing miserably, there was space thrown open for the biggie to continue with its presence in theatres.
What really worked for Sultan was the jumps it managed on each of the weekends, what with Saturdays and Sundays continuing to bring on family crowds. This is what allowed the film to hang on and with the Rs. 300 crore mark being breached, all involved with it can celebrate in a big way. The film has massive competition ahead in the form of Rustom and Mohenjo Daro, which means it would be hardly in the running next week. However, it is expected that at least a handful of theatres would be running Sultan for a couple of more weeks, which would allow it to enjoy a 50 day run.
ALL TIME BLOCKBUSTER.
