The biggest flop film in Aamir Khan's career meant the director never got a star to work with and a south superstar ended his Bollywood career.
Aamir Khan is known for being selective with his films, making fewer movies but aiming for higher returns at the box office as well as quality content. While this has largely been true for the last two decades, Aamir wasn’t as selective in the 90s. In that decade, the actor did several films that did not work and were critically panned as well. Among them is this 1995 release, inspired from The Godfather, which might just be his biggest flop ever.
Aamir Khan’s biggest flop, which also starred Rajinikanth
The 1995 film Aatank Hi Aatank was a gangster drama that was loosely based on Mario Puzo’s The Godfather as well as Francis Ford Coppola’s film adaptation of the book. The film starred Aamir, Rajinikanth, and Juhi Chawla, along with Archana Joglekar in the lead. The film was directed by Dilip Shankar. Courtesy the presence of Rajni and Aamir – both in their prime – the film was a much-hyped one. But it opened at only Rs 31 lakh and wound up doing a business of just Rs 2.55 crore domestically. In contrast, two of Aamir’s next three releases – Rangeela and Raja Hindustani – both crossed Rs 20 crore at the box office.
How Aatank Hi Aatank affected Rajinikanth and Dilip Shankar
By the mid-90s, Rajinikanth had been working in films for two decades. In the Tamil cinema, he had become the number one star following the success of Baasha (1992). He was still appearing in Hindi films like Hum and Chalbaaz, but largely with another Bollywood star to share the load. Aatank Hi Aatank proved to be the final such film for Rajni though. He did not appear in the lead role in a Hindi film after that, only returning for an extended cameo in Bulandi in 2000 and a guest appearance in RaOne (2011). But the actor continued to rule the box office down south, giving several industry hits like Chandramukhi, Enthiran, 2.0, and Jailer.
Dilip Shankar had it worse, much worse. The filmmaker had been at the helm of only one film before – the 1988 release Kaal Chakra, which had no big stars. Aatank Hi Aatank was his biggest film, and it turned out to be his biggest failure too. The filmmaker made two more films – Nigehbaan and Married 2 America – but neither had any notable star, with Archana Joglekar, Sandali Sinha, and Sameer Dharmadhikari rounding off the lead actors in these two titles.
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 "Aamir Khan in Aatank Hi Aatank")
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