Q. You always have Akshay Kumar rated at number four or even higher but his films hardly open to 11-12 crore and Ajay Devgn, Ranveer Singh and Tiger Shroff open much better so its easy to conclude they should be ranked higher than Kumar?

M. Bose

A. There is something called padding which means a film which has far more than just the male star. Akshay Kumar films like Toilet Ek prem Katha or Rustom or Jolly LLB 2 or Padman are driven by Akshay Kumar and him alone. The other actors you mentioned are padded with bigger budgets, bigger films, bigger casts, bigger directors, bigger canvas, etc etc when they open higher than Akshay Kumar. If this padding is not there then the openings are lower an there are many examples. The bigger Akshay Kumar films will start from next year and then you can compare. Also the number of films make a huge difference as they are generally quickies and not films that take a year or more to make so that will dent box office as well. The mass following is only second to Salman Khan and that is despite a few years of films which does not cater to mass. 

Q. There is article which says Kareena Kapoor bigger than John Abraham. Can you put up the top stars in the country which includes male and female because like to see which other male actors are less than the big female stars?

S. Alvi

A. Post Sanju maybe as that may see a some changes in pecking order if it does the job.

Q. There is a lot of negativity for Salman Khan after Race 3 with most trade people saying Aamir Khan is top and a league of his own and even Salman Khan fans saying they will not watch Dabangg 3 or Kick 2 or Race 4 so is this not the end of the road?

J. Raghu

A. Eight years of super stardom does not end with one film it will take more than that or a big challenge from someone else. The fans will come to watch those films above and if they are good they will be huge hits. The negativity is for various reasons mainly as Salman Khan does not cater to to the media so they go for the films more when they dont work. It was same with Tubelight a year ago. Also its the wrong music company producing the film as many portals and channels are controlled by the main two players and they not going to kind to an old player coming back. Eventually the film is an AVERAGE fare at least and that will do for a film gone wrong. It may be called disaster or huge flop by many but thats the media for you.

Q. Was there a time when Ajay Devgn was bigger than the Khans?

Vijay Jain

A. Yes around the early nineties he was bigger than Salman Khan and Aamir Khan as his films like Jigar, Divyashakti, Vijaypath took better openings than the Khan films. Shahrukh Khan started later but became a bigger star with Baazigar and Darr.