The stupendous success of Shah Rukh Khan's latest release, "Chennai Express" must have made many think as to who is the king of box office in Bollywood - SRK, Aamir Khan or Salman Khan.
Looking at the record book, Aamir Khan's "3 Idiots" still holds the biggest worldwide grosser with ₹392 crore and it is very unlikely that "Chennai Express" will be able to surpass the record.
Aamir acted in some critically acclaimed films like "Mangal Pandey: The Rising", "Rang De Basanti", "Taare Zameen Par", "Ghajini" in the recent past but they failed to make it to the list 10 biggest grosser of Bollywood except "3 Idiots".
Shah Rukh Khan's "Chennai Express", where he acted with Deepika Padukone has broken many records, including biggest opener ever in Bollywood, fastest film to cross ₹100-crore-mark and ₹200-crore-mark, and biggest grosser in India with ₹218.42 crore at the time of filing this story. However, it is still ₹71 crore short of reaching the record set by "3 Idiots". Its worldwide collection is approximately ₹321 crore (overseas earnings of this week not included).
SRK has has another film - "Jab Tak Hai Jaan" which earned approximately ₹120. It is in the top 10 list of biggest grosser (domestic) listed by popular trade analyst Taran Adarsh.
However, Salman Khan has four films in the list of top 10 grossers, and the number is highest by an actor. His film, "Ek Tha Tiger" (₹198.78), "Dabangg 2" (₹155.00), "Bodyguard" (₹148.86), "Dabangg" (₹138.88) are among the biggest grossers at the domestic box office.
Salman also has two films - "Ek Tha Tiger" (₹310 crore) and "Dabangg 2" (₹250 crore) - that crossed ₹200-crore-mark at the worldwide box office.
Going by the number of films in the list of top 10 highest grosser, Salman is on top with four films in ₹100 crore elite group. Shah Rukh Khan has two films - "Chennai Express" and "Jab Tak Hai Jaan" in the list of biggest grosser, and the former is the biggest grosser in India. However, Aamir Khan's "3 Idiots" is still the biggest grosser worldwide with ₹392 crore, though it is his lone film in the list.
Statistics may give a clearer picture of the performance of the actors and their films but it still not fair to name any actor as the king of box office though several sections of the media like to categories them, as they are good in their own ways irrespective of the performances of their films.