Salman Khan

Salman Khan hopes to get third time lucky as he launches Pranutan Behl and Zaheer Iqbal

Every year, Bollywood is greeted by movies starring newcomers. Most of the new kids on the block belong to the kith and kin of the families that are already a part of the industry. That was seen last year when Karan Johar launched Sridevi and Boney Kapoor's daughter Jahnvi Kapoor alongside Shahid Kapoor's brother Ishaan Khattar in Dhadak. Later, Abhishek Kapoor launched Saif Ali Khan and Amrita Singh's daughter Sara Ali Khan in Kedarnath, who was later also seen in Simmba just a few weeks down the line.

Now in 2019, Salman Khan is ready to launch Mohnish Behl's daughter Pranutan Nehl alongside his childhood friend's son Zaheer Iqbal.

Other than the fact that both Pranutan and Zaheer would be waiting with bated breath to check out how do audiences respond to their unusual love story, Salman, who is presenting this movie, will hope the movie generates the right kind of buzz.

Reason? His earlier two attempts to bring newcomers in the industry didn't really set the cash registers ringing. Though he went all out to ensure that both Hero as well as Loveyatri's success at the box office, neither emerged as successful commercial movies when it came to theatrical business.

Hero [2015] was the bigger film between the two, what with lot of hype surrounding the Sooraj Pancholi and Athiya Shetty starrer. Considering the fact that this was the remake of Subhash Ghai's superhit movie that had made Jackie Shroff and Meenakshi Sheshadri household names back in the 80s, there were high hopes from the film.

Moreover, the names in contention were quite notable as well, what with Aditya Pancholi's son Sooraj Pancholi pairing up with Suniel Shetty's daughter Athiya Shetty. With Nikkhil Advani entrusted to launch the star kids, the platform was quite solid as well. Hence, there were no complaints whatsoever about the effort that he put into making sure that everyone knew about the film that was in the making.

As a result, the film took a good opening as well, what with Rs 6.85 crore coming on the very first day of release. Considering the fact that Karan Johar's Student of the Year [2012], where he launched Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhat and Sidharth Malhotra, had opened at 7.48 crore and Sajid Nadiadwala's Heropanti [2014] with Tiger Shroff and Kriti Sanon had collected Rs 6.63 crore on its release, this was actually a good opening for Hero. However, the film couldn't quite cover the distance and ultimately folded up under the Rs 35 crore mark.

That said, though Sooraj and Athiya didn't quite go on a signing spree over the years gone by, the former would next be seen in Satellite Shankar and Time to Dance, while latter has started shooting for Motichoor Chaknachoor.

Meanwhile, Salman also had huge plans for his brother-in-law Ayush Sharma. He launched him with great fanfare in Loveyatri [2018] and brought on board a newbie Warina Hussain opposite him. The film did have pleasant music to support it as well but then somehow there was hardly any buzz or hype around it.

Unlike Hero, which had developed good curiosity around it en route release, Loveyatri was largely flat on its release even though Salman was putting a lot of muscle into it right till the day of the film's arrival. The entire Khan 'khandaan' was positive that this entertaining love story would get good audience for itself but the paying 'junta' had made up its mind already.

As a result, the opening of the film was quite low, what with just 2 crore coming on Friday. There wasn't much follow through either and the lifetime stayed well under the 15 crore mark. There are talks though that both Ayush and Warina are gearing up for their respective next films and yet again, Salman would be the guiding force behind it all, though it has to be seen if he steps in as a producer again.

The shining part about both his earlier launches has been that Salman has ensured good production values and classy set up for each of these newcomers, hence ensuring that the overall set up does look impressive. That seems to be hallmark of Notebook as well, the promo of which has made a good first impression. A love story about a young couple who have never met and basically connect through a notebook, the film is directed by Nitin Kakkar, who earned good acclaim with Filmistaan and later also made Mitron, which released last year.

Now that the film is set to release in a month from now (on 29th March), it is not just Pranutan and Zaheer who would be looking forward to the outcome but also Salman, who would indeed want his proteges to find good commercial success as well as critical acclaim.

After all, the man has launched many female leads opposite him in the form of Sonakshi Sinha [Dabangg], Zareen Khan [Veer], Daisy Shah [Jai Ho] and Sneha Ullal [Lucky - No Time For Love], and he would indeed want the best for the new kids as well.

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Salman Khan’s Bharat Teaser On ‘How’s The Hype?’: BLOCKBUSTER Or Lackluster?

After covering Akshay Kumar’s Kesari in our newly started section ‘How’s The Hype?’, today we are here to take on Salman Khan’s anticipated Eid release, Bharat. While the trailer is still to come out, the recently released teaser did spark an excitement amongst fans with over 39 million views and 735K likes already.

Speaking in detail about the teaser, the duration is 1 minute and 26 seconds. Without revealing much about the plot, it gives a glimpse of Salman Khan’s different looks. Right from Naval Officer, stuntman to old-aged person, the actor is seen in different avatars. As the movie is spanning over 70 years of Khan’s character, it features six different looks of the actor.

“Aksar log mujhse puchte hai ki mera surname kya hai, jaati kya hai, dharma kya hai? Aur mein unse muskurake kehta hu ki iss desh ke naam pe mere babuji mera naam Bharat rakha….” line from the teaser gives goosebumps and promises to be full-fledged masala entertainer with a patriotic backdrop.

It could be said that makers have already hit the ball out of the park while the trailer is still awaited and with Salman Khan leading the show, Bharat is all set for an earth-shattering reception.

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Sooraj Barjatya calls his new project with Salman Khan the 'most satisfying and important film' of his life

Salman Khan is presently busy with Bharat. The film is scheduled to release on Eid this year and marks two important reunions; one with director Ali Abbas Zafar and another with Katrina Kaif. Apart from this, he has also joined hands with Sanjay Leela Bhansali for a love story, which was recently confirmed after rounds of speculation. Meanwhile, the old actor-director duo of Salman and Sooraj Barjatya is also set to strike a new film, just as we reported earlier.

However, Khan's date diary looks quite packed. But Barjatya doesn't mind waiting. In fact, he says he needs time to work out the film as well. “I will wait for Salman Khan because this is a big film for me, I am not in any hurry. That film will take time, I still have to put it down,” the filmmaker told Deccan Chronicle.

“There is an idea that I have discussed with him. It’s a little too early because I have to put it down. But, for me, this is the most satisfying and most important film of my life,” he added.

Salman and Barjatya have worked in super hit films like Maine Pyar Kiya, Hum Aapke Hai Koun and Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, among others. This, one, however, would be of a different taste. “What I have learnt in 32 years as a filmmaker, is what I will put in this film. This film is for him. It’s not a joint family drama but about a husband and wife,” he said.

Fans must be waiting already!