Anyone who thinks Hrithik is not a superstar needs to read this - Sorry SRK Fans!!

The Year 2000 began with the release of a movie, which a lot of people thought would be just another love story, made to launch a star son and it will fizzle out after a weak run of 1-2 weeks. But Hrithik Roshan had some other plans, not only did he become a star overnight, but also the movie turned out to be one of the top 10 grosser in the last 7 years. Now where did I get this from? The source is not that reliable, but the data is interesting and in an industry where there are only speculations about real numbers, this is as good as any. NamasteTV in US did a countdown of Top 10 biggest movies by earnings (inflation adjusted) in the new millennium so far and the results were a bit surprising.....

From Number 10 to 1 the top movies are:

Kaho Na Pyaar Hai - The double role, weak guy strong guy formula is still strong in Bollywood. Rakesh Roshan is one director who has used it repeatedly and has struck gold each time - Kishan Kanhaiya, Karan Arjun, KNPH and to a certain extent Koi Mil Gaya. KNPH didn't have the kind of buzz a star launch would have and was overshadowed by another much hyped launch of Abhishek and Kareena in Refugee, but we all know how that turned out and Hrithik's debut ended up number 10 in this list.

Don - A lot of people including me thought that this was a big mistake on SRK's part, but then we underestimated the size of his fan base. In addition there was Amitabh's fan base aka "SRK Haters" who watched it to make fun of  SRK and the movie later. But if you combine the two fan bases, that's enough to make any movie a BIG hit and caused Don's remake to be number 9 on this list.

Koi Mil Gaya - Another Baap Beta production and Rakesh Roshan hit a home run with India's first supposedly sci-fi flick. I thought that alien guy was the result of just bad make-up, but apparently the kids and families loved it and the movie turned out to one of the highest grosser of that year and number 8 on this list.

Rang De Basanti - This was the first surprise for me; I didn't expect to see RDB on this list. I was thinking that Lagaan and DCH had a better chance of making it. But I am happy that a movie with a real script and some good performances made it to the list.

Fanaa - This movie is Aamir Khan's Raja Hindustani for this decade. Bad movie with decent songs and a huge star cast made it the number 6 top grosser of the current decade. This also showed that Kajol had way more fans than any of the current actresses.

Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham - Finally an Amitabh Bachchan sighting!! wait, but this is not his movie, it's again a Hrithik SRK movie.  Those of you who are keeping count, that's 3 for Hrithik and 2 for SRK, let's go on to the next one.

Krrish - Is Rakesh Roshan the best director ever!! Third movie in top 10 by daddy Roshan. So check this, he's made only 3 movies since 2000 and all three starred Hrithik and they are all here in this countdown. Not only that his hits have gotten bigger with time. I have no doubts now that Krrish 2 will belong to this list soon. Hrithik 4, SRK 2.
 
Lage Raho Munnabhai - I am a little surprised that Munnabhai MBBS didn't make this list, but had no doubts that the sequel will. One of the best movies of last year, this one touched the hearts of millions and is another proof that a good script with good acting can still produce a hit.

Dhoom 2 - Finally Aishwarya and Abhishek Bachchan make an entrance. But again, I don't think people have any doubts who was the real star of this film? Hrithik Roshan not only proved that he has more star presence than Abhishek and Aishwarya combined, (agreed that he got a lot of help from the script) but also that he can give hits without his dad directing the movie.

Gadar - It's tough to top a movie that has Sunny Paji bashing a bunch of Pakistanis (sorry Paki friends). To be fair this was more of a love story than a patriotic movie, that most people made it out to be. Also except for the ending sequence, I actually enjoyed this movie a lot. This movie also proves the power of the Indian masses for making a movie hit.  So all you directors when you think of choosing London or New York for your next movie setting to get extra dollars out of NRIs must take note.

I apologize for not providing any numbers, the show had them, I just forgot to take them down. Except for the top 3, there wasn't a whole lot of difference in the rest of the top 10, maybe 1 or 2 million dollars here and there. But the biggest thing for me was that people wrote off Hrithik after his many flops, but the guy has given not 1 or 2 but 5 top movies in last 7 years!! And there is no Salman Khan, Akshaye, Ajay Devgan, Saif Ali in the list.

Aamir and SRK both had 2 movies in this top 10, but SRK had a number of assists in Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham so I would rate Aamir ahead of SRK in the last 7 years. Among the actresses, Kajol and Priyanka both had 2 movies, but we all know that Kajol has a bigger draw than Priyanka, the latter was just lucky to be part of these movies. Amisha had two big hits very early in her career and then she just vanished after that. That's some great career management Amisha:-)

I am sure a lot of you guys would have opinions on this list, so why don't you start writing those below, but remember facts are always more important than perception and the fact is that Hrithik is the biggest star around.