Tiger Shroff, Varun Dhawan or Sushant Singh Rajput: Which young actor rules Bollywood box office? Data has the answer

While the Khans and Akshay Kumar have been ruling the box office for decades now, a younger squad led by Ranveer Singh and Ranbir Kapoor also established their credentials at the ticket windows and are now counted as bankable stars in the Hindi film industry. Now, yet another club comprising youngsters such as Tiger Shroff and Varun Dhawan has earned their stripes and is raring to have a go at the big bucks. So, who among the contenders is a BO cert -- a man capable of bringing in the numbers on that all-important day 1 and an actor who can keep them coming over the weekend.

Here, we take a look at Varun, Tiger, Sidharth Malhotra, Sushant Singh Rajput and Arjun Kapoor and how their films have fared at the domestic ticket windows:

Tiger Shroff

Tiger made his Bollywood debut with a hit, Heropanti (2014), and he went on to cement his position as an action star. In a career spanning four years, Jackie Shroff’s sons has two flops and two hits to his credit. His Baaghi 2 hit the theatres on Friday and trade experts believe the film will be successful, thanks to Tiger returning with his action avatar. Film distributor Akshaye Rathi told Hindustan Times that Baaghi 2 should make an opening collection of Rs 10 crore plus and expressed hopes that the film could Tiger’s first one to mark a century.

Varun Dhawan

Varun made his Bollywood debut in 2012 alongside Alia Bhatt and Sidharth Malhotra with Karan Johar’s Student off The Year. Ever since, Varun has tried almost all genres and managed to escape getting stereotyped - be it a Main Tera Hero, Judwaa 2 or Badlapur or a dance film like ABCD 2. Varun has three films in the Rs 100-crore club and two certified hits. His next, October, again takes him in a new territory.

Arjun Kapoor

After making a decent debut in 2012 opposite Parineeti Chopra with Ishaqzaade, Arjun experimented a lot with the kind of films he chose. However, the actor failed to impress crowds a few times, draw them to the cinema halls and convert his fan following into box office figures. He already has four flops and has a total of nine films to his credit.

Sidharth Malhotra

When he made his debut as one of Karan Johar’s protégés in Student Of The Year (2012), he found his own set of fans drooling over his pensive looks and “mature” demeanour. The actor explored thriller, action and romantic genres - some of which worked for him while some didn’t. In a filmography of nine movies, Sidharth has two hits, three flops and two major duds to his credits.

Sushant Singh Rajput

The Pavitra Rishta fame TV star made his Bollywood debut with Abhishek Kapoor’s Kai Po Che and he continues to surprise Bollywood fans with his choice of movies ever since. Be it a Dhoni biopic or one on the legendary Byomkesh Bakshy, Sushant has always managed to impress critics. However, his box office collections have only proved to be average. With two hits and two flops in a career of five films, Sushant is yet to prove his credentials at the box office.

A glance at the above graph is enough to tell us that Varun Dhawan is the clear winner at the box office. Following him closely is Tiger Shroff, who has managed to carve a niche for himself with a filmography of just four films.

While the total collection of a film depends on a lot of factors -- the film’s content, number of screens it releases on, other films running at the same time, and the likes, the day one opening collection of a film is majorly effected by the lead pair’s star value and the crowd he or she can convert into footfalls for theatres. The analysis here clearly establishes that Varun and Tiger are leading the youngest brigade of actors when it comes to churning out moolah for their producers. Sushant Singh comes a close with equal number of flops and hits in his kitty.

Currently, Varun awaits the release of Shoojit Sircar’s October in April while Tiger’s Baaghi 2 is in the theatres. Given the buzz around the two films, the two stars will certainly carry on their successful box office ride in near future. Sushant, too, has films like Kedarnath and Sonchiriya - both interesting and unconventional projects.

“Varun, much like Ranveer Singh, has maintained a balance between cinema for the masses and the classes. Both the actors have fan base that spans beyond the metros and goes to the single screen. Varun does not have a following that is limited to urban audience,” distributor Rathi added.

Arjun and Sidharth, on the other hand, have an interesting line up of films - Arjun has Dibakar Banerjee’s Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar, Vipul Shah’s comedy Namastey England and Ashutosh Gowarikar’s period drama Panipat while Sidharth has Captain Vikram Batra biopic and Aashiqui 3 in his kitty. With the right content, promotion and strategy, the two actors may soon work wonders at the box office and turn tables in the industry.

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