The current box office landscape in Bollywood is increasingly shaped by star-driven expectations rather than a film’s actual profitability or ability to recover costs. Take Sitaare Zameen Par—Aamir Khan’s latest release—as an example.
The film has earned around ₹80 crore in its first six days, a respectable figure for a niche offering. Yet, despite its average trending and limited long-term prospects, it is already being labelled a “hit” or even a “blockbuster” by some trade analysts and PR teams.
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This, despite the fact that it is unlikely to cross ₹200 crore and may end up with a lifetime total of around ₹150–160 crore.
While the film has benefitted from positive word-of-mouth, the numbers reveal a different story: weak advance bookings, a noticeable drop after the weekend, and a plateauing trajectory.
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The enthusiasm in declaring it a success at just ₹60–70 crore reflects a lowering of standards for top stars, rather than an honest assessment of box office performance.
This trend is part of a larger shift in the industry: leading actors now have unofficial “minimum” benchmarks for their films to be declared hits.
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For Shah Rukh Khan, that figure is around ₹250 crore; for Salman Khan, ₹225 crore; and for Aamir Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, and Hrithik Roshan, it’s ₹200 crore (According to the list by trade analyst Sumit Kadel). Anything below that is often dismissed as “average” or even a “flop,” regardless of its actual performance.
For instance, Dunky made ₹210 crore but was not seen as a hit by some because it didn’t meet SRK’s benchmark. Similarly, Sitaare Zameen Par may end with decent earnings, but won’t be considered a hit for Aamir by current standards.
This star-centric approach is distorting how success is measured in Bollywood where box office milestones are more about an actor’s market image than a film’s merit, profitability, or cultural impact.
