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After half a dozen flop films over nearly two years, Bollywood actor Salman Khan has finally tasted commercial success with his latest action flick, Wanted, emerging top grosser this weekend, generating around Rs 17-19 crore in domestic box office collections.

Khan’s previous commercially successful film was Partner, released two years earlier.

Trade pundits expect Wanted, a remake of a South Indian film, to generate around Rs 28-30 crore in its first week collections. And say it may recover its costs by the end of four weeks. (The cost of making and promoting it is estimated at Rs 40-45 crore). This will end a two-year flop run for Salman — Yuvraaj, Hello, Heroes, God Tussi Great Ho and Saawaryia, among others.

Salman has been around in the Bollywood for 30 years now and worked in around 85 films, including two dozen commercial hit films. After Wanted, Salman has two important releases lined up in Main Aur Mrs Khanna and London Dreams, both slated for release next month.

Wanted generated high collections during the weekend despite competition from another new release from the Yashraj banner, Dil Bole Hadippa!, featuring Rani Mukherjee and Shahid Kapoor. It generated collections of less than Rs 14 crore, even as both the films were released on September 18.

“Because of a long weekend holiday, including the Id holiday today, Wanted is seeing occupancy levels of around 70-75 per cent. Salman’s charisma is driving audiences to both multiplexes and single-screen theatres, where the film has seen over 90 per cent occupancy,” says Devang Sampat, senior vice president, Cinemax, a leading multiplex chain.

Ashish Sinha / New Delhi September 22, 2009, 0:14 IST

Link

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/wantedmay-end-salman%5Cs-2-yr-flop-run/370862/