India has seen seven stars achieve mega stardom and two of them are Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan.
The others being Dilip Kumar, Rajendra Kumar, Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan.
There is not one name in sight from regional film industries and yet today you see names like Prabhas, Yash, Allu Arjun and others put up with there with two superstars who are not only the biggest superstars of the day but among the biggest ever.
There are many stars in the industry but it does not mean box office super stardom as this happens to very few. You can have the biggest HITS but what you do in the film has to be a craze and that makes the big difference as many actors have give huge hits over the last 100 years but only 7 are really big box office stars.
1. Dilip Kumar (1952-1964)
The peak of his career came in the early 1960s with films like Mughal-E-Azam (1960) and Ganga Jumna (1961), which created history and remain today among the biggest blockbusters of Hindi cinema. The performance in Ganga Jumna is also probably the greatest ever by an actor in India. The workload slowed after that, though the big hits still came with Ram Aur Shyam (1967) and Gopi (1970), but it was difficult now to fit into that traditional hero format due to age.
2. Rajendra Kumar (1963-1968)
3. Rajesh Khanna (1969-1974)
Rajesh Khanna saw the Greatest Ever Run at the box office, which lasted from October 1969 to June 1971. It was an extraordinary run because it is unlikely that 14 hits like this will be given by anybody in a span of 21 months again. It could happen again, but not in a short 21-month span. He delivered 14 hits out of 15 films, including nine blockbuster/super hit films.
Rajesh Khanna and Shahrukh Khan are probably the biggest romantic stars in history and its this genre.
Rajesh Khanna lost super stardom in late 72 to early 73 but the films with Mumtaz still worked like Roti, Aap Ki Kasam and Prem Kahani in 74-75.
4. Dharmendra (1971-1987)
The late sixties saw many huge hits like Aankhen (1968), Shikar (1968), and Aaya Sawan Jhoom Ke (1969), but they did not capitalize on the image that Phool Aur Patthar gave. The rubber stamping of the image came with Mera Gaon Mera Desh in 1971, which was a bigger blockbuster than Phool Aur Pathar. This film also changed the direction of Hindi cinema, as prior to Mera Gaon Mera Desh, the big films were mainly romantic dramas shot in the Kashmir valleys with super-hit music. The mega success of this film made the industry shift to action.
The peak of Dharmendra came in the mid-70s with films like Sholay (1975), Pratiggya (1975), and Dharam Veer (1977). After this, the quality of films dropped, but that initial draw remained intact, driving films to succeed until the early 90's. Eventually, the career saw around 60 jubilee hits and over 100 successful films. These figures are way ahead of the rest, and it can be said with almost 100% certainty that it won't be beaten unless Akshay Kumar or Ajay Devgn (these two have a volume of films today) start giving 3–4 hits a year for the next ten years. Even if this miracle were to happen, the level of success of Dharmendra HITS is far superior, with many films having historic success. Many of these HITS are solo films, but in the 1970's there was a trend toward multistarrers, and Dharmendra worked in many of these as well. The difference here between Dharmendra and the others in the 70's was that when Dharmendra was in a two- or three-hero film, it became his film, and it could be seen by the audience that he was the main lead and the others were in supporting or lesser roles.
5. Amitabh Bachchan (1977-1992)
Amitabh Bachchan is the biggest star the country has seen to date.
In total there could be 30 bumper openings for Amitabh Bachchan as in the eighties and early nineties it was bumper for nearly every film be it that film eventually turned out to be a HIT or FLOP.
If we go further back and include legends and biggest stars of all time like Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan then its eleven times for Dharmendra (including Tahelka and Kshatriya), four times for Rajesh Khanna and twelve times for Amitabh Bachchan (including Bade Miyan Chhote Miyan, Hindustan Ki Kasam and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham).
6. Shahrukh Khan (1995-2017), (2023-2024*)
Shahrukh Khan does not have many huge disasters as he became a box office force very early in his career.
Darr had the advantage of the biggest stars of the time with Sunny Deol ruling the roost and Shahrukh Khan closing in on the top spot at the time.
Padmaavat is not a Darr scenario like it was with Shahrukh Khan as the public was with Shahrukh Khan's character in these films and the sympathy went to him which made him a major star. Here the public is not with the character of Ranveer Singh as he is the villian. The last one to do extraordinary business all over was actually a Shahrukh Khan film Darr in 1993. This is probably the most successful thriller genre film in India ever.
Even Shahrukh Khan played second fiddle to Madhuri Dixit in Anjaam but Shahrukh Khan was on a crest of a wave at the time and the audience could not accept him as an outright villain and the film was rejected.
Guddu and Oh Darling Yeh Hai India were taken on before he became a major star with Baazigar and Darr.
In 1995 Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge came and created another huge box office Megastar. Action has dominated the box office since the release of Mera Gaon Mera Desh in June 1971 till today and in those 50 years only Shahrukh Khan managed to create a huge fan following without an action image.
The mega stardom will never come from a biopic though as the actor is unable to leave his stamp on the character like a Shahrukh Khan did in DDLJ or Salman Khan in Dabangg.
Veer Zaara became a super hit due to its medium budget, but it had the projection of a Diwali blockbuster, probably because of the presence of Shahrukh Khan and the huge initial in India and overseas. Record Initial Worldwide without much commercial elements.
Rajesh Khanna and Shahrukh Khan are probably the biggest romantic stars in history and its this genre.
Basically the bigger the star, the bigger the risk with this genre. The more popular you are then the higher the expectations go which just can't be met with the genre especially the sort of number that is expected of a Shahrukh Khan or a Salman Khan starrer. Its difficult to meet expectations anyway and if a few circuits reject the film then the gap between expectation and final result can look huge which is the case with Fan.
The downside of mega stardom is that you can't really go out of the drama, action genre today as box office numbers are reported everywhere and outside these genres you need some outstanding film to put up a megastar number. Even the legendary megastars of prior generations with great box office records are likely to have filmographies devoid of thrillers.
Pathaan will take initials like very few films have before across the world because it is that traditional ALL INDIA MASS FILM for Hindi audiences across the globe and these are a rarity today. On top it has one of the biggest superstar ever of Hindi cinema coming back after a few years.
The admissions were around 23k which is no joke for a film which has already been so widely watched for the last 27 years. The main reason of the response is Shahrukh Khan and shows the superstardom is at was before and now the wait for Pathaan which will see Shahrukh Khan in this type of action zone which has not been seen for years if ever seen.
Pathaan saw Shahrukh Khan in the action genre which should have happened 10-15 years ago as a lot of his non performers were down to genre not being correct at the time of release for such a big star. The superstar works in films more often were superstardom meets genre rather than just depending on superstardom.
Shahrukh Khan is the biggest Indian film star ever seen in overseas and this is pretty much indisputable and he has had sub par movies over the last few years but they have still recorded HIT numbers and now here comes a much better product so there is a good chance that the overseas market can be pushed to another level.
Shahrukh Khan leads as he has not really seen a down period since the early 90's while Aamir Khan and Salman Khan have seen down periods. Even non performers of Shahrukh Khan are not Commercial Zone Event films. Failures came mainly in limited appealing Genres.
It will be called the comeback of Shahrukh Khan and as its a release after fours year it can be called a comeback from that angle but not as a star because the clout was there in 2003, 2013 and now 2023, all Pathaan does is confirm the clout and if not Pathaan something else would have done it.Years of megastardom does not die with 3 or 4 films not performing.
All in all another great day for the film industry as business jumps again in leaps and bounds and this has come with music that has not worked but Shahrukh Khan coming off Pathan with another huge ACTION film was always opening huge and its was just about whether it tops Pathaan opening. The action factor is highlighted in capitals as its of utmost importance as a lot of Hindi films in the last twenty years had gone towards thriller zone and only Salman Khan was doing actions films. Even Shahrukh Khan so called actions films like Don franchise were more towards thriller. Pathan, Gadar 2 and now Jawan are outright action films and opening results are all there for to see.
Animal probably put him behind only Shahrukh Khan as far as box office pegging order goes But these sort of things are not just about one film but time and its also the genre making a big difference be it SRK or Ranbir now as Pathaan, Jawan and Animal is very different from the cinema they had been doing pre pandemic and long may it continue.
7. Salman Khan (2010-2019)
“The other side of the industry will believe its difficult to make good female driven films but thats not the case either as a Mother India and Hum Aapke Hain Kaun stand with the male testosterone driven Sholay and Gadar as historic blockbusters in Hindi cinema.”
“Gone are the days of Rajhshris when these sort of stories without the stars reached out to the wider audience and that too when there were only single screens.”
The film (Judwaa 1997) was also the film which gave the career of Salman Khan a major lift as although he had much bigger Hits than Judwaa before they were either two hero films like Saajan, Karan Arjun and Jeet or ensemble cast ones like Hum Aapke Hain Kaun and Sanam Bewafa where the supporting artistes have major roles.
In 2009 came Wanted which was not a huge hit but created this action star image for Salman Khan who until then was more of a romantic hero. He consolidated this image with films like Dabangg and Bodyguard and there was no looking back. These film were not the biggest blockbusters of the career of Salman Khan but created an image where the huge openings materialized which was not the case with some of the earlier bigger hits.
A male star has to do something in a film where the audience takes to him in the big way and for Salman Khan it happened with Dabangg and not Hum Aapke Hain Kaun. It was not only Dabangg as one film cant lead to such super stardom but others like Bodyguard and Ek Tha Tiger which helped cement the audience.
Even a Salman Khan starrer London Dreams comes up on the list but it was before his superstar days which started with Dabangg(2010) and the way things are going it won't be there forever as there will be some 50 crore plus budget film which will do less than 25 crore nett over the next few years.
The mega stardom will never come from a biopic though as the actor is unable to leave his stamp on the character like a Shahrukh Khan did in DDLJ or Salman Khan in Dabangg.
There are many stars in the industry, but that does not mean box office super stardom, as this happens to very few. It’s not only box office numbers because, as you pointed out, there was Hum Aapke Hain Koun, which is a far bigger hit than Dabangg and the biggest hit in a generation. A male star has to do something in a film where the audience takes to him in a big way, and for Salman Khan, it happened with Dabangg and not Hum Aapke Hain Kaun. It was not only Dabangg as one film that could lead to such super stardom but others like Bodyguard and Ek Tha Tiger, which helped cement the audience from where there was no looking back. A similar scenario took place with Shahrukh Khan in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and Sunny Deol in Ghayal. You can have the biggest hits, but what you do in the film has to be a craze, and that makes a big difference, as many actors have given huge hits over the last 100 years, but only seven actors are really big box office stars.
One crore footfalls also means reaching an audience although some films need to reach a bigger audience due to the size of the films and most Salman Khan films come into this category. The one miss was Veer (2010) which was his first release of the decade and became before Dabangg (2010) which established his image of a mass action superstar across India and then films like Bodyguard, Ready and Ek Tha Tiger rubber stamped this image. Veer actually scored in Rajasthan and Bihar but Salman Khan was not the same star at the time of this release as he was a year or two later.
Basically just one film under 1 crore footfalls through the whole decade means most of his films got an audience irrelevent of content. If we compare then Aamir Khan had one film which fell under 1 crore footfalls in the 2000-2009 decade but there were just nine releases and Manoj Kumar had one miss in the 1970-1979 decade but only ten films. Limited films had a hand in not missing the 1 crore mark for Aamir Khan and Manoj Kumar.
The 100 year plus history of cinema in India has seen around seven genuine superstars or megastars. We say genuine as regional superstars are called superstars today while stars and mini stars also get called superstars so the word superstar looses value.
When historians right about Indian cinema then it may well be that the names of Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan are top of the pile due to various reasons.
