Is Salman unlucky for newcomers?

Salman Khan has yet again proved unlucky when it comes to launching newcomers. While all of Salman Khan’s films cross the Rs 100 crore mark, Khan’s last film Notebook starring Mohnish Bahl’s daughter Pranutan and Salman’s friend’s son Zaheer Iqbal came a cropper at the turnstiles grossing around Rs 3 crore till now.

Salman had earlier greenlighted his brother in law Aayush Sharma’s film Love Yatri which also launched Warina Hussain and the film made around Rs 7 crore. His earlier film Hero which marked the debut of Aditya Pancholi and Zareena Wahab’s son Sooraj along with Suniel Shetty’s daughter Athiya Shetty was merely an average grosser raking on Rs 33 crores but had done better than these two films.

“What can we say? Most of Salman’s films have done well in recent times barring Tubelight and Race 3. But then the content of these films launching newcomers left a lot of be desired. A lot of ‘bhai’s films have lacked content but have done well because of his personal starpower. That has not translated in terms of the box office as his fans have not rushed to see these films. We guess the story has been a major drawback when it came to these films. But they managed to raise a lot of curiosity and hype because he was producing and promoting those films,” says a trade source.

The only heroine launched in a Salman Khan film was Sonakshi Sinha who became a star. Others like Daisy Shah, Zareen Khan and earlier Sneha Ullal and Bhoomika Chawla have not made it big in Bollywood.

Compare these numbers with Karan Johar, who is basically a producer and a director. He launched Alia Bhatt, Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan in Student of The Year, Janhvi Kapoor and Ishan Khatter (Bollywood debut) in Shashank Khaitan directed Dhadak, and is launching Tara Sutaria and Ananya Pandey in Punit Malhotra’s Student Of the Year 2.

The first two films did well and the third one is releasing this summer. “You have to remember that Salman is an actor turned producer. Karan is the son of a producer and understands the dynamics a lot more and is thoroughly involved in the process of filmmaking. Newcomers need training and grooming in the right manner before they are launched and he does that thoroughly. Perhaps that is one more reason for the success of these newcomers, nepotism, notwithstanding,” says another trade analyst.

Incidentally the Bhatt camp, Mahesh, Mukesh and Pooja Bhatt were the only production houses known to launch newcomers earlier – Pooja Bhatt, Rahul Roy, Dino Morea, Bipasha Basu, Emraan Hashmi, John Abraham, Kangana Ranaut, Sunny Leone and even Anu Agarwal as long as she lasted. Ram Gopal Varma too was doing that for while with Shiva and Satya and then went wrong when he turned filmmaking into a factory.

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