Ayushmann Khurrana set to score double hat-trick with Ekta Kapoor's ‘Dream Girl’, join elite club

Dream Girl poster (Image: Twitter/@ZeeMusicCompany)

There is a milestone achieved only by big guns like the three Khans -- Salman, Aamir and Shah Rukh -- and Akshay Kumar, in recent times.

However, it now looks as if Ayushmann Khurrana will join the club with Dream Girl. The film is expected to be his sixth straight success at the box office.

Starting with Bareilly Ki Barfi, Khurrana has already scored five consecutive times with Shubh Mangal Savdhan, Andhadhun, Badhaai Ho and Article 15 having been accepted whole heartedly by the audience.

This also includes a couple of half centuries (Andhadhun, Article 15) and a century (Badhaai Ho). Now, with bare minimum, Khurrana would be aiming for Dream Girl to go past the Rs 50 crore mark and then consolidate its position from there on.

This would be an elite league to join for Khurrana as there are hardly any actors in the industry who have enjoyed such a strike rate.

Akshay Kumar is currently leading the pack with Mission Mangal turning out to be his tenth straight success. The winning streak started with Airlift which was followed by Housefull 3, Rustom, Jolly LLB 2, Toilet - Ek Prem Katha, PadMan, Gold, 2.0, Kesari and Mission Mangal. Each of these films had emerged as a century, except for PadMan which was an average affair.

Other superstar with such a run is Salman Khan. Between Dabangg and Sultan, Salman had eight other hits/superhits/blockbusters in a row before Tubelight halted his superb run. However, a triple hat-trick ensued with Dabangg, Ready, Bodyguard, Ek Tha Tiger, Dabangg 2, Jai Ho, Kick, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo and Sultan turning out to be successful.

Though Shah Rukh Khan has not been having a good run of late, he too did manage to enjoy a double hat-trick in the current decade. Starting with My Name Is Khan, Shah Rukh went on to score more successes with Ra.One, Don 2, Jab Tak Hai Jaan, Chennai Express, Happy New Year and Dilwale. Fan, which came after that, put a brake on this winning run.

Aamir scored a triple hat-trick and could have made it 10 successes in a row had it not been for Thugs of Hindostan’s debacle. However, after Mangal Pandey: The Rising, Aamir had managed to give nine successes in a row. After Rang De Basanti, he delivered Fanaa, Taare Zameen Par, Ghajini, 3 Idiots, Talaash, Dhoom: 3, PK and Dangal, and in the process also became the founding father of Rs 100 crore, Rs 200 crore and Rs 300 crore clubs.

While this is a big league where Khurrana is expecting to be find himself in after Dream Girl’s release, there is incidentally only one other star from the current generation who has achieved this feat. He is Varun Dhawan, who ironically saw his first flop only earlier this year-- Kalank. Otherwise, he was riding high on triple hat-trick success of films like Student of the Year, Main Tera Hero, Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya, Badlapur, ABCD 2, Dilwale, Dishoom, Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya and Judwaa 2.

Coming to Dream Girl, so far everything has fallen in place for the Ekta Kapoor production with which Raaj Shandilyaa making his directorial debut. The promo has managed to make an impression among the masses. Subsequent promotion and marketing has been on target as well. With the film slated to have paid previews on Thursday (September 12) itself, it would be soon known if Khurrana can indeed brace up for a triple hat-trick soon.

(Joginder Tuteja is a trade expert and film critic. Views are personal)