Yash Chopra's last directorial venture, Jab Tak Hai Jaan a hit overseas

MUMBAI: There has never been a doubt that King Khan has been Bollywood’s most successful star in the overseas market—combine that with the star power and draw that Katrina Kaif pulls in overseas and you have a potential blockbuster on hand. Jab Tak Hai Jaan’s overseas collections across four days is $4.75 million which is approximately Rs 26 crore, a figure which has beaten SRK’s own previous films like My Name is Khan while in markets like the Middle East trade sources say the collections are more than the last YRF blockbuster Ek Tha Tiger (ETT).

While almost everyone in the film industry has been exploring different markets and going in for wider releases overseas to increase the revenue stream, for SRK’s films these markets take more significance as the numbers are dramatic.

Given his overseas fan following for example in Germany YRF released 50 prints of their total 670 prints across 28 plus countries and plan to increase these to around 700 over the next few weeks. This is approximately, 100 more than their last ETT.

A glimpse of how important overseas is for a SRK film is best seen in his film My Name is Khan, which he co-produced with Karan Johar’s Dharma and Fox Star’s debut Bollywood film in India. Given the reach of Fox, they took the film to an unprecedented 52 markets collecting a total of US$28 million which was more than the domestic $23 million! Almost all of his last 15 films from a Don2 to a Ra.One have performed well overseas netting anything from $10-15 million. In fact in Pakistan, JTHJ has recorded the highest opening for a film ever along with Singapore. As producers explore more markets and languages, it is a revenue stream which will gain further importance.

With domestic collections touching Rs 60.39 crore in four days and a weekend still awaited, the expectation is for the magic figure of Rs 100 crore which is a benchmark the industry still awaits for the big films, deemed a sure hit.