Akshay Kumar's Airlift was clearly the choice of audience over the weekend gone by. Even in its second weekend, it did better than the new releases (Mastizaade, Saala Khadoos) which tells the tale. After holding quite well on Friday, it started escalating on Saturday and Sunday, hence resulting in a bountiful weekend of 19.26 crore*. As a result, the film now currently stands at 102.76 crore*.

With this, the film has now crossed the 100 crore mark in 10 days flat, an achievement by all means, especially considering the fact that this was a niche drama in the offering with offbeat cinema meeting commercial parameters. Director Raja Menon is now the newest entrant into the 100 crore club and he has managed that with a film which would gain him a lot of respect as well as commercial viability.

Star presence of Akshay Kumar has further helped the film reach out to a larger section of the audience. For the actor, it is a proud moment indeed as the film has joined the 100 crore club, which is dominated by hardcore commercial flicks like Rowdy Rathore and Housefull 2, along with Holiday which was an action affair too. The actor would next be seen in Housefull 3, another sure-shot 100 crore flick in the offering, and rest assured, the film after that - Rustom - would definitely entice that segment of audience which has helped Airlift turn out to be a very good success.

The weekdays would be stable for Airlift as well since it is the only film currently in the running with universal appeal to it. It would have to make the best of these four days since Sunny Deol's Ghayal Once Again arrives on Friday and the film is set to find good opening at the Box Office.

Note: All collections as per production and distributor sources

Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder