Bodyguard becomes first Bollywood film to collect Rs 1 bn in 1st week

MUMBAI: Salman Khan’s Bodyguard has made the fastest run to the Rs 1 billion milestone in India’s box office history. The movie collected Rs 1.05 billion in its first week, bettering performances from other super hits like 3 Idiots and Dabaang.

“The historic performance at the box office has been helped by the mass following of Salman Khan, the good pairing of Khan and Kareena Kapoor and the extended weekend,” Reliance Entertainment CEO Sanjeev Lamba told Indiantelevision.com.
Reliance Entertainment carried out an aggressive campaign and chalked out a wide release of the film. “This is also the first film of Salman Khan that has got a bumper opening in the US and is doing exceedingly well in the UK, Australia and New Zealand,” added Lamba.

In the overseas circuit, the film has grossed £840,000 from UK and $1,051,132 from US during the extended weekend.
Meanwhile, another film in which Reliance Entertainment is involved is doing well. The Ajay Devgn-starrer Singham has mopped up Rs 1 billion in its sixth week. The film grossed Rs 510 million in its first week.
Said Lamba, “A hard-hitting story, the wonderful combination of director Rohit Shetty and star Ajay Devgn and some amazing action sequences have resulted in an extremely successful run for the film. Singham is the first mainstream film produced by Reliance Entertainment and we are very pleased with the results.”