‘Pathaan’ crosses Rs 700 cr in 9 days; author Paulo Coelho gives Twitter shout-out to SRK, hails him as ‘legend’

‘Pathaan’ has the whole world in its thrall. From day one, the SRK starrer has been smashing box-office records left, right, and centre. Now the espionage thriller has crossed another milestone. The Shah Rukh Khan-Deepika Padukone-John Abraham film has now earned Rs 700 crore (globally) within nine days. This makes the movie, the third-highest-grossing Hindi movie, just after ‘Dangal’ and ‘Baahubali: The Conclusion’.

Industry tracker Ramesh Bala took to Twitter to break the news. “ ‘Pathaan’ crosses Rs 700 crs at the WW Box office in 9 days … ’’
According to box-office collection tracking portal Sacnilk, the movie remained rock-steady, with no signs of slowing down, and collected Rs 15–16 crore on its second Tuesday.


The spy thriller marks Khan’s comeback to the big screen after a four-year hiatus. It also marks Abraham’s return as the film antagonist after ‘Ek Villain Returns’.

Aside from demolishing box-office records in India, the film has also performed marvellously well overseas. Brazilian author Paulo Coelho revealed himself to be a part of the SRK fan club. The author took to Twitter to give a shoutout to King Khan after the stupendous success of ‘Pathaan’.

On Thursday (February 2), ‘The Alchemist’ writer shared a clip that showed the superstar greeting his legion of fans outside his house Mannat and wrote, “King. Legend. Friend. But above all great actor. " ("For those who don't know him in the West, I strongly suggest, 'My name is Khan, and I am not a terrorist'. ") The tweet has gone viral on the microblogging platform, with 2.8 million views, 34.7K likes, and more than 5000 retweets.
Khan was quick to respond to the gracious gesture. Retweeting Coelho’s tweet, the superstar wrote, “You are always too kind my friend. Let us meet up sooner than soon! Bless you."
Netizens flooded the comment section. One SRK fan wrote, “ Woww... and what a way to introduce him to those, who didn’t know him!” Another commented, “Sir, your this tweet has made SRK and his film ‘Pathaan’ very special. I am a big fan of your storytelling!”
This is far from the first time the ‘Veronica Decides To Die’ author has praised Khan. In 2017, the author congratulated the ‘Baazigar’ actor on the seventh anniversary of the movie ‘My Name Is Khan’ on Twitter and wrote that the actor delivered an Oscar-winning performance in the movie. “His first (and only) movie that I watched (this year, even if it was released in 2008) was My Name is Khan. And not only was the movie excellent, but SRK deserved an Oscar if Hollywood was not manipulated. He kindly offered to send the other titles; as you probably guess, it is not easy to find them in Switzerland,” the comment read.

Coelho is one of the most celebrated authors in the world. His seminal work, the allegorical novel 'The Alchemist' has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide.