Will Salman Khan recapture the top with Jai Ho?

Bollywood's next big event movie, Jai Ho, is hardly a day away from release and the hype and expectations surrounding the film are huge. The fact that Jai Ho is a Salman Khan starrer is its primary attraction. The other members of the cast aren't salable in a big way and it is 'Bhai' who holds the key to the film's success.

Some of Salman's earlier releases came out on festival days and created a storm at the box-office but Jai Ho is releasing on a normal Friday with a National Holiday two days away on the 26th.

In India, the film will be released in between 4000 to 4500 screens while in overseas markets, the screen count is in the 600 to 650 range. The worldwide screen-count is sure to be upwards of 5000 and this is humongous.

In India, the ticket rates haven't been hiked as Salman has personally intervened and made sure that the common man is able to afford the ticket rates of Jai Ho in the first weekend itself.

The big question in the trade and among fans is whether Jai Ho can break the records set by Dhoom 3 at the ticket windows. Dhoom 3 has netted more than 280 crores in India and has grossed more than 160 crores in overseas markets. The worldwide gross is a whopping 530 crores plus and Dhoom 3 is the biggest grosser ever among Hindi films.

Whether Jai Ho can match or best Dhoom 3's numbers, at normal ticket rates? We have to wait and watch.