Salman Khan’s journey down the years….
Andrew Patterson We will soon be seeing him in the much anticipated Race 3 which is the third part of the thriller franchise. So, before watching him blow up cars and beat up bad guys in Race 3, we take a look back at his journey in films so far…
Salman Khan made his official debut as a supporting actor in the film Biwi Ho To Aisi (1988). A 23-year-old Salman played the hero's brother in a heroine-oriented subject. His voice was dubbed by someone else and he was a grouchy brat for most part in it.
Thankfully, Biwi Ho To Aisi was not his official launch pad.
His first leading role in a Bollywood film was in Sooraj R Barjatya’s romantic family drama Maine Pyaar Kiya which released in the year 1989 and went on to become one of the highest grossing films that year. Right from his first film he made a special place for himself in the hearts of people and his performance also earned him the Filmfare Award for Best Debut (Male).
In fact, Maine Pyaar Kiya was not only a hit in the Indian markets but also managed to perform well abroad. The film was dubbed in English and Spanish which was a rare thing for Bollywood and was released in the Carribean market and Spain where it performed pretty well.
Later in 1991, Salman Khan was seen in three moderately successful films like Patthar Ke Phool, Sanam Bewafa, and Kurbaan. In the following year, Salman was seen along with Sanjay Dutt and Madhuri Dixit in Saajan. The movie went on to be a critical as well as commercial success. After all these early successes, Salman Khan failed to deliver at the box-office in nearly all his films in the years 1992 - 1993.
In 1994, he was seen in Rajkumar Santoshi’s Andaaz Apna Apna which also starred Aamir Khan, Karisma Kapoor and Raveena Tandon. Although, the film failed to impress the audience at the time of release, over the years it has gained cult status. Even today, people are willing to watch the film over and over again.
Salman Khan’s actual comeback at the box-office came in the same year with Sooraj R Barjatya’s romantic drama Hum Aapke Hai Koun..! in which he was seen opposite Madhuri Dixit. The film proved to be a critical as well as a commercial success. It managed to bag three Filmfare Awards the following year for Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress. It also won the National Award for being the most popular film of the year. It managed to earn â¹ 1.35 Billion at the box-office and also earned the title for the biggest Bollywood hit of the year. It is one of the films in the list of "Biggest Blockbusters Ever in Hindi Cinema”. In 1995, he was seen in Rakesh Roshan’s Karan Arjun which also starred Shah Rukh Khan. Karan Arjun was a Bollywood family drama which released on 13 January 1995. The story of Karan Arjun was about two brothers, played by Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan, who are killed by their family enemies and are reincarnated to come back and take their revenge. Interestingly, Hrithik Roshan worked as an assistant director along with his father Rakesh for this film. It was the second-highest-grossing Indian film of 1995, after Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, which also starred Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol. Salman’s performance in the film also earned him a nomination for the Filmfare Best Actor Award.
In the year 1996, Salman was seen in two movies. The first one being Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s directional debut Khamoshi: The Musical. Although the film was a failure at the box-office, it managed to receive a big thumbs up from the critics. The second one being Raj Kanwar’s action flick titled Jeet which had an above average run at the box-office.
In 1997, he was seen in David Dhawan’s Judwaa. The film was a remake of the Telugu film Hello Brother (1994),which in turn was loosely based on the Hong Kong action film Twin Dragons (1992), starring Jackie Chan. Judwaa was the first collaboration between David Dhawan and Salman Khan. Like the name suggests, Judwaa was based on the life of two twins played by Salman Khan. One child gets separated from his parents right after he was born and the other one grows up along with his parents in America. But, destiny had other plans as they end up meeting each other in India and together take revenge from the man who tried to kill their father. On 29 September 2018, a reboot to the film Judwaa was released by David Dhawan titled Judwaa 2. The film saw Varun Dhawan play Salman’s part and Karisma and Rambha were replaced by Jacqueline Fernandez and Taapsee Pannu respectively. But since Judwaa is incomplete without Salman himself, he also makes a special appearance in the film. During the climax, we see the twins of Salman Khan and Varun Dhawan grooving to the iconic Tan Tana Tan song from the film.
In 1998, Salman Khan was seen in five different films. The first release being the romantic comedy titled Pyaar Kiya Toh Darna Kya in which he was seen opposite Kajol. The film went on to be one of the biggest commercial successes of that year. This was followed by the moderately successful Jab Pyaar Kisise Hota Hai. In the film, Salman played the role of a young man who has to take a child who claims to be his son, under his custody. His performance in the film was appreciated by the critics as well as the audience. He also played a small part in Karan Johar’s directorial debut, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. With Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, he also received his second Filmfare Award under the Best Supporting Actor (Male) category.
In the year 1999, Salman Khan absolutely owned the box-office with the three films he starred in. The first film was Hum Saath Saath Hai which was another family drama directed by Sooraj Barjatya and the second one being Biwi No.1 which marked another successful collaboration between Salman Khan and David Dhawan. The third one was Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam in which Salman was seen along with Aishwarya Rai and Ajay Devgan. The film also earned him another nomination for the Filmfare Best Actor Award. The film was a critical and commercial success and the music of the film became a major selling point. Salman Khan’s all three films in the year 1999 held the top spots of the year in terms of box-office collections. The highest grosser title went to Hum Saath Saath Hai with Biwi No.1 and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam coming in at the second and third spot respectively.
Jumping forward to the year 2003, Salman Khan was seen Satish Kaushik’s Tere Naam. In the film, Salman played the character of Radhe Mohan. A rowdy student who falls in love with the innocence and simplicity of a girl named Niraja (Bhumika Chawla). Despite rejecting Radhe for the fist time, Niraja eventually falls for him but then due to a sudden change fo events Radhe suffers brain damage and ends up in a mental institution. After his return, he finds out that the woman he loved is not more since she committed suicide after losing the hope that she will ever be with Radhe. Distraught after what he just heard, Radhe heads back to the mental institution and continues to live his life there since he feels that after losing his true love, he doesn’t have anything to live for anymore. Tere Naam was not a great success at the box office but it received massive critical acclaim and is still regarded as one of Salman Khan’s best performance to date. He subsequently continued his success at the box office with comedies like Mujhse Shaadi Karogi (2004) and No Entry (2005). After this, Salman hit a bit of a rough patch in his career. While Partner had a nice run at the box-office, films like Baabul, Jaan - E - Mann and and Marigold performed poorly.
2009 is considered to be a turning point in his career. And not surprisingly, it is the year in which Wanted was released. It established Salman Khan as the out and action star of the country. After Wanted, Salman again had a few films which didn’t work like Veer and London Dreams but, he cemented his place as the top star once again with Dabangg. Dabangg released on 10 September 2010 in which Salman played the role of a corrupt yet fearless police officer which also had some touch of humour. It opened to positive reviews and broke several records after its release. The film managed to rake in 80 crores in its first week, thus becoming the highest opening week grossing Bollywood film, overtaking the previous record of 3 Idiots. After Dabangg and Wanted, Salman knew that the audience enjoys watching him the most in commercial masala flicks and so he decided to stick to his powers.
Salman Khan’s first release in 2011 was Ready. Ready was a comedy directed by Anees Bazmee and starred Asin opposite Salman Khan. Ready became the second highest opening day grosser, as well as the second highest weekend grossing Bollywood film at that time, after Dabangg. It also held the record for being the second highest grossing Bollywood film of 2011. He next appeared in Bodyguard, a remake of the 2010 Malayalam film of the same name. The film was not well received by critics, though it became a financial success, as it got the title of India’s highest earning film of the year.
In 2012, Salman Khan was seen opposite Katrina Kaif in Ek Tha Tiger which was directed by Kabir Khan and was produced under the Yash Raj Films banner. The film was a story about two agents from India and Pakistan who are fighting from their countries for their love. Although, the film opened to mixed reviews from the critics it still managed to set the cash registers ringing. The film went on to break the record for the highest first day box-office collections coming up to 30 crores. Interestingly, this was also Salman’s first collaboration with Yash Raj Films despite being in the industry for 24 years. Ek Tha Tiger managed to enter the INR 100 crore club in just five days which broke the record set by Salman Khan’s own film Bodyguard.
Salman’s next release of 2012 was the sequel to Dabangg. Dabangg 2 continued on the same path as the first film. The lifetime collections of the film going up to INR 250 crore at the global box-office. In 2014, Salman was seen in Jai Ho in which he was paired opposite Daisy Shah, who was making her Bollywood debut with the film. Even though the film managed to cross the INR 100 crore mark it didn’t perform as well as Salman’s last five releases. His second release of the year was Kick, which also starred Jacqueline Fernandez and managed to cross INR 200 crore in its lifetime collections and was declared a super hit. Salman also sang the “Hangover” song in the film.
Salman Khan’s first release of 2015 was Bajrangi Bhaijaan. The film managed to earn positive reviews from the critics and also performed stupendously at the box-office.
In the year 2016, Salman had another Eid release with Sultan. The film was directed by Ali Abbas Zaffar and was Salman Khan’s second collaboration with Yash Raj Films. In June 2017, Khan appeared in Tubelight, his third collaboration with Kabir Khan after Ek Tha Tiger and Bajrangi Bhaijaan. This film also starred Khan's real-life brother Sohail Khan. Despite its high expectations, the film failed to maintain a strong run at the box office. Salman Khan’s next release was Tiger Zinda Hai which was the sequel to Ek Tha Tiger. The film managed to gross a total of INR 190 crore in the first weekend itself at the global box-office. The lifetime collections of the film were INR 330 crore (approx) at the Indian box office, making it the third highest domestic grosser of all time.
Now we will soon be seeing Salman Khan in Race 3 which is the third part of the popular franchise known for its unpredictable twists. The film also stars Jacqueline Fernandez, Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Daisy Shah, Saqib Saleem and Freddy Daruwala. From what we have seen in the trailer, it will be safe to assume the fans won’t be left disappointed as the film looks to be packed with action sequences. Salman will also be seen in sequels of his own films with Dabangg 3 which is expected to release at the end of this year and Kick 2, which will tentatively be hitting the screens next year. Salman will also be collaborating with Ali Abbas Zaffar once again for his next venture titled Bharat. The film is an official adaptation of a South Korean film titled 'Ode To My Father'. The story is about a man who gets separated from his family during the Korean war and how he manages to reunite with them. The film also marks the comeback for Priyanka Chopra in Bollywood and in which we will also see Disha Patani sharing screen space with Salman Khan for the very first time.
