Slowish news day.  Just a few box office reports and some Olympics reactions.  And also, BABY!  Is Salman’s nephew the cutest baby in the film industry today?  Possibly!

Bollywoodhungama, just to shake things up a little in their continuing series of “Rustom totally trounces Mohenjo Daro at the box office” stories, put up a comparison with previous opening weeks for both Hrithik and Akshay.  Rustom is Akshay’s top release, Mohenjo Daro is Hrithik’s 4th.

What I found most interesting is how the two lists show the differences between their two careers.  Akshay is a remarkably reliable performer.  There is less than a 30 crore difference between Rustom at 90 crore, his number 1 week in box office, down to Gabbar is Back at 69 crore at number 10.  The list goes down at a steady 1-2 crore from film to film for most of them, never more than 4 crore difference.  And all of the films are from the past few years, reflecting the steady box office growth through out the industry in the recent years.  Akshay is bang on the mark with industry trends.

Meanwhile, Hrithik is all over the place!  He drops 20-30 crore film to film.  His top movie, Krrish 3, is at 133 crore.  And his 7th movie, Guzaarish, is at 20 crore.  It’s not just that Hrithik has flops, it’s that he doesn’t always go for the hit scripts.  I mean, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara isn’t necessarily a bad movie, but it’s never going to be a box office smash.  Akshay does those movies too (OMG, for instance), but he mixes them in with plenty of hits.  Which is why, ultimately, Mohenjo flopping is much more damaging than if Rustom had failed to make it.  Akshay can shake it off and move on to his next script, and he knows he has a long history as a reliable hitmaker to fall back on.  Hrithik doesn’t have that, every flop can seriously hurt his box office average.

And now, for a completely different topic!  Amitabh is tweeting the Olympics like crazy, of course.  Because he loves both sports and patriotism.  And he got into a bit of a twitter war with Shobhaa De of all people.  She tweeted something insulting about how India’s Olympic athletes just want to take selfies, and Amitabh fired back after PV Sindhu got to the badminton finals.  Here’s the whole exchange: Shobhaa: “Goal of Team India at the Olympics: Rio jao. Selfies lo. Khaali haat wapas aao. What a waste of money and opportunity.” Amitabh: “Never ever underestimate power of female gender ! #PVSindhu you have destroyed so many ‘naysayers’ .. you are the PRIDE of INDIA!#PVSindhu .. aap “khaali haath” nahein, medal leke wapas aa rahein hain .. aur hum aapke saath ‘selfie’ nikalne chahate hain !!”

And finally, BABY!!!!  The Khan family posted a bunch of Rakhi celebration pictures, and the photos of Salman with his sisters are cute, but what really sends it over the top is when all the little girls tie Rakhi on teeny-tiny little Ahil.  Who may be the most photogenic baby in India today.  Or at least the most expressive.

(“What’s this?  What’s happening?  A Rakhi?  I’m so excited!”)

(“oh look, someone close to my size.  That makes me happy!”)

(“Another one?  Is this going to be another little string tied around my wrist?  Cool!”)

(“A lot of people around now.  I wonder if it is time for my nap yet?”)