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THE 700CR CLUB: NEW REALITY OR ONE-TIME STRIKE?

Gone are the days when Bollywood stars rejoiced entering the Rs 500 crore-in-a-year club. It is the era of the new Rs 700 crore-in-a-year club - all thanks to Akshay Kumar.

Backed by the success of four films - Kesari, Mission Mangal, Housefull 4 and Good Newwz - Akshay scripted a new chapter in the history of Indian showbiz by minting over Rs 700 crore at the box office in 2019. Now, there's going to be ripple effect in Bollywood showbiz with the tempering of box office expectations in 2020, and top stars reworking their strategy.

Trade experts credit Akshay's strategy behind achieving this feat, and believe that matching his hit rate can be tough but not impossible.

"The volume of business is increasing,” trade analyst Taran Adarsh told IANS. “Now, actors have to focus on content as well as box office performance. The content has to be good, because if the content is appreciated by the audience, then box office numbers also follow. Akshay did four films last year, and all from different genres and touching different topics.”

According to a list by Bollywood Hungama, Akshay minted Rs 735.42 crore last year, followed by Hrithik Roshan who registered business of Rs 464.85 crore with his act as math wiz Anand Kumar in Super 30 and mega-hit War.

In fact, Riteish Deshmukh had dhamaal at the box office in 2019 as he is third in the list by raking in over Rs 396 crore with three releases (Total Dhamaal, Housefull 4 and Marjaavaan) Then there is Tiger Shroff (Rs 387.020 crore) for Student of the Year 2 and War.