The thriller genre has come unstuck again and this time its with the biggest star in country at present. An article was written here at the time of Fan and is being reproduced on another page. At that time Salman Khan had not starred in a thriller but the results are there to see with the first one Race 3. The film is not the flop its being made out be but it has under performed.
Shahrukh Khan and Aamir Khan had tried this genre with Fan and Talaash and both finished below 100 crore nett and those films were pushed by the media unlike Race 3 but even there the audience was not to be fooled. Talaash was lucky that the costs were reasonable and Mumbai did decent. But this genre as always struggled at the box office in India.
The biggest thriller HITS in India of all time are probably Darr and Agni Sakshi though these were bulit around strong love stories and hit music. 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. Actually its bit like Race 3 with Salman Khan who is ruling the boost but here the love story and emotions go missing and the thrill factor has limited takers in India.
This is the story of this genre not just in recent times but forever. There were few films of this genre attempted before the 80's. There were those spy thrillers in the 60's of which some were huge blockbusters but you could not really call them thrillers as they were filled with normal Hindi film elements like music, love story, comedy etc.
In the 80's the biggest stars had thriller films but again the results were not as they should be. In 1983, Dharmendra had Qayamat which did well in some circuits but was not a huge hit (adjusted nett in 125 crore region)
Dharmendra was not the invincible star in 1983 as he was in the 70's but Amitabh Bachchan was at that time and in 1986 and he had Aakhree Raasta but again that film worked mainly in Mumbai and South (adjusted nett in 175 nett region)
The results are similar (though aided by Eid also) for Salman Khan who is the only star working today who can join the all time greats. Shahrukh Khan maybe but has to go back to the level of success he saw in the 2000-2010 decade.
Below are the top ticket price adjusted grossers in the thriller genre since 1994 and Race 3 will probably finish in the top 3 but a lot of that will be down to the Eid factor.
1. Darr (1993) - 191.43 crore
2. Agni Sakshi (1996) - 189.18 crore
3. Gupt (1997) - 168.16 crore
4. Raajneeti (2010) - 147.68 crore
5. Holiday - A Soldier Is Never Off Duty (2014) - 134.43 crore
6. Race 3 (2018) - 132.50 crore apprx (6 Days)
7. Race 2 (2013) - 112.26 crore
8. Ek Villain (2014) - 109.09 crore
9. Talaash (2012) - 105.26 crore
10. Ajnabee (2001) - 103.10 crore
Some reasons as to why the genre is tough can be see in Fan - The Genre Makes It Tough
https://www.boxofficeindia.com/report-details.php?articleid=4044
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