Will Lakshya beat Main Hoon Na?

Main Hoon Na enters the fourth week in North America and England with an estimated $3.6 million haul and exhibitors wonder which movie could beat that collection this year, three things are becoming evident.

One, the film which faces formidable opposition by Mani Ratnam's Yuva in the coming days, is fading fast and could end with an awesome $4 million gross. But it is still falling short of the $4.5 million that Shah Rukh Khan's other hit, Kal Ho Naa Ho, took a few months ago.

Many who loved both films say the latter appealed more because it dealt with NRIs in New York, a city that is most familiar to immigrants from India across North America. It also had far more emotional punch.

One of my neighbours Mona Kumar says she saw it at least three times in theatres and she was not ashamed to cry each time. "I had a lot of fun crying," she says. "I am not afraid to laugh at the comedy in our films and I am not at all embarrassed to cry."

Second, the huge success of Main Hoon Na further consolidates Shah Rukh's status as a star with a firm box-office clout. The only star who has had such a lucky streak of hits abroad is Amitabh Bachchan. Many Bollywood stars like Govinda, who have had a strong string of hits somehow could not make a big impact in North America. Sanjay Dutt, whose career zoomed with the miraculous success of Munnabhai MBBS, could not make the film a big hit abroad. It grossed just about $1 million on both sides of the Atlantic. Shah Rukh, on the other hand, has delivered nearly a dozen hits abroad in less than a decade.

Third, the success of Main Hoon Na is even more impressive in that it is not a multi-starrer like K3G or has a romantic triangle involving a fairly popular actor like Saif Ali Khan in KHNH.

For the rest of the year, Main Hoon Na will be the film to be beaten. And the first serious challenge will be thrown by Farhan Akshtar's Lakshya, which has an impressive star cast led by Amitabh Bachchan, including Hrithik Roshan, whose popularity abroad has been slowly increasing in the last two years.

"The film has been made with a lot of passion and has a glorious ending," Hrithik who was in New York recently told rediff.com. "I cannot resist a film like that. I feel the audience, especially abroad, are going to love it."

"Farhan Akhtar made a terrific debut with Dil Chahta Hai. And with this film, he shows how much of a master of this medium he is fast becoming."