Is Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi responsible for the expected success of Ghajini

Ghajini is all set to embark on a historic start in less than a week from now (the film begins its paid previews from Wednesday evening itself!) and in some way, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi deserves some part of the credit for that. Reason? Bollywood, which in year 2008 was at an all time low till about 10 days back, suddenly seems a lot more spirited and excited, courtesy the superb response that Adi-SRK combine has generated in the week gone by.

The sentiments have perked up overnight and the industry, which was reeling under recession and back to back failures of many a biggies (Yuvvraaj, Drona, Love Story 2050), has started singing a different tune altogether. Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar (who will be striking in less than a month from now, with Chandni Chowk To China) are being hailed as the saviors of the industry even as the third Big Khan has quietly moved out of the reckoning with the huge failure of Yuvvraaj.

Coming to Ghajini and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi connection, the super success of the latter has proven one point that people have actually visited theaters in hordes in spite of mood of the entire nation being gloomy and depressing for last so many days. Now if only the film would have been bad or it would have failed to excite any audience to step into theaters at all in the first place, the negativity, in all probability, would have rubbed into Ghajini as well.

Though Aamir Khan would still have managed to pull in substantial audience, the kind of buzz that the film is carrying today is unparalleled for which one can't help but thank Shah Rukh Khan and his Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi enough. Also, after spending mega bucks in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, if audiences would have disliked the film, they would have been hesitant to venture into theaters again within just a fortnight.

Looking at such scenarios, one can be assured that Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi has paved the way for Ghajini to go ahead and make huge bucks for itself too. The message for the Aamir Khan starrer is - 'See, we made good money in spite of release timing which was not so positive while reviews too were mixed. Now you have all going in your favor so why don't you go for the kill!'

No wonder, Aamir Khan is going all out to make sure that Ghajini fetches record first week collections on its 24th December release. The way it is in news day and night out, Ghajini has made many a commoners box office analysts with numbers like 40 crores, 50 crores, 60 crores being thrown up in air as if they were candies up for grab. And no, I am not talking about the film's budget or its final collections! These are the first week numbers around which bets are being laid all around.

Well, while a record breaking opening week is pretty much on the cards (beware Singh Is Kinng, Om Shanti Om, Golmaal Returns, Dhoom 2), one waits to see if Ghajini indeed turns out to be Bollywood's first film that would go on to cross the 100 crore net collections mark in India alone.