Box Office Analysis of Aamir Khan

1988-90 : A star is born

Aamir Khan was launched by his uncle in 1988 movie Qayamat se Qayamat tak. The movie was superhit and can make a claim to make a paradigm shift in the type of movies from 80's(masala action) to 90's(romanctic).

The movie itself made Aamir khan a star. 1989 was a bad year as it only had one notable movie in Raakh,which flopped. By this time Aamir khan had signed many movies and most of them were flopping.

1990 saw Aamir back in form with the biggest hit of the year in Dil. The movie put him back on track.

Rankometer: By the end of 1990, with two superhits under his belt Aamir khan was a new BO force to reckon with. How will he fare in the future only time will tell. Amitabh Bachchan and Anil Kapoor were the top 2 stars right now. Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Sanjay dutt and Sunny deol were the other saleable stars of the era.

1991-94 : Finding Ground

1991 Saw many Aamir movies releasing most of them flopping again. Only Dil hai ki maanta nahi was a city success. By this time Aamir knew he couldnt do so many movies at a time, and he started a first of its kind one movie at a time law for himself.

In 1992 Aamir only had one release in Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar. The movie saw the combo of Mansoor and Aamir coming back together after QSQT. It was touted as the next big movie for Aamir and though there is no doubt the movie was liked, it didnt translate to much moolah, with the movie ending as a Average Grosser.

1993 had Aamir doing 2 movies out of which Hum Hai Rahi Pyar Ke did well which was a mild Hit. The movie also won the Director National Award.

1994 also saw only one release from Aamir in Andaz Apna Apna and though the movie went to become one of the biggest cult movies of india, it again did only coverage business.There have been many version of the movie's success ranging from flop to decent only in mumbai to average. It can safely be said that the movie didnt do much magic at the Box office.

Rankometer: It can be easily said that the above 4 years were what Aamir definitly didnt want after a great start to the career. There were two things which helped Aamir at this point, one he was doing very less movies(only 4 moives last 3 years, whereas 4 movies a year was the norm at that point) and lack of any superstar in Bollywood.(Big B, Anil,Sanjay all out of race)

1995-96 : Superstardom Finally Arrives

After looking for an outright hit for many years, Aamir finally struck gold in 1995 with Rangeela.

He had a failure in Akele Hum Akele Tum though.(His last movie with mansoor as director)

1996 was a big year for Aamir khan when he delivered one the biggest hits of the 90's in Raja Hindustani.

The movie put Aamir right in the top league and for some late months of 1996, he was number 1 in bollywood.

Rankometer: Aamir khan kept churning out very less amount of movies during this period. And the consecutive success of Rangeela and Raja Hindustani has indeed made him a big force to reckon with at the Boxoffice. It was the time of the Khan trio formation and Aamir was easily part of the top 3 at that point in bollywood.

1997-99 : Years of Consistency

1997 was again a good year for Aamir as he had a good hit in Ishq, which was his only release that year.

In 1998 Aamir again had only one release in Ghulam which did decent business for its budget.

1999 saw Aamir in Sarfarosh which did good business and Mann which managed did coverage Business.

Rankometer: Blame it on his one movie at a time technique or he incapability to generate interest in big movie makers, this period at best was decent for Aamir Khan. He had the consistency, his acting capabilities were being liked, but in the last 3 years he just didnt have the Box office record to break into SRK and Salman at that time. His strike rate was very high though compared to all and failure was indeed very far away from him. All this did lead him to be being still a big star at the boxoffice.

Salman,SRK,Sunny,Aamir and Ajay devgan were the top 5 stars by the end of 1999.

2000: Year of Humiliation

Aamir's Only release of the year, Mela, turned out to be one of the most embaressing moments of his career.

With the thought that he might recreate a Raja Hindustani all over again, Aamir joined forces with Dharmesh Darshan, but it backfired big time as the movie was a flop.

Rankometer: After a Bad year in 2000, Aamir's rating did fall a notch and was clinging on to top 5 slot.

One thing was for sure that his masala directors from the past Darshan(RH) and Indra Kumar(Dil,Ishq) had started failing him big time in Mann and Mela. So to find new ground he will have to go out of his comfort zone, that was the bottom line.

2001: Transformation Personified

By 2000, Aamir had reached a plateau in his career and it looked like going nowhere for sometime, but then came 2001.

This year he had the Oscar nominated Lagaan, which was a huge hit and the cult classic Dil Chahta Hai which too did very well with its intended audiance.The year proved very profitable for Aamir as both the movies were diametrically opposite of each other.

Rankometer: This year put Aamir right back in the top league. With hrithik facing torrid weather Box Office wise and Salman too not doing that good, Aamir was right behind SRK and Sunny deol.

2002-04 : The Vanishing Act

From 2002 to 2004 Aamir didnt have any single release.

Rankometer : It has always been a highly debatable topic that this vanishing act was beneficial or not for Aamir. During this time SRK had huge domination at the Boxoffice, Hrithik restored himself and salman too had a mini comeback , though Sunny went into oblivion.

The writer is of the view that you only have a bad year if you release a movie and it doesnt work, so Aamir's star status remained intact even though he was out of the game. Interestingly it might be pointed out that he may be working on his brand name,perception and perfection etc as a lot of that will be on show in the coming years, but then its all speculation.

2005-Present : Career hits an all time high

Aamir made a comeback with the Mangal Pandey in 2005 which was hugely hyped.

The movie did take a huge opening(biggest ever at that point), but faded soon to be a average grosser in the end. It was a bitter sweet experience as Aamir knew his star status was intact(as seen in the opening), but the movie didnt do as well as expected(as Aamir must have thought of it as his next lagaan).

2006 was a big year for Aamir. He had two huge hits to his name that year.

Fanaa turned out be a massy affair and did very well on the Boxoffice.

Rang de basanti too did amazing business and it was indeed a mixture of different kind of movies.

2007 saw Aamir in a new avatar as a director. He Directed, Produced and had a supporting role in Taree Zameen Par. The movie was again a huge hit.

In 2008 Aamir Starred in south remake Ghajini and the movie went on to break all boxoffice records by a margin.

Rankometer: With all this amazing success in last few years, Aamir is seeing his best time ever at Boxffice.

He along with Hrithik and SRK form the formidable top 3. There is basically nothing much to choose between them right now. These 3 along with Akshay kumar form the top 4 superstar league in Bollywood right now.

How much success or failure Aamir khan will see more only time will tell.