MUMBAI: Aamir Khan is making further inroads into movieland with his banner. After a successful run with Taare Zamin Par and Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, the Khan has done it once again. His latest co-production with UTV, Peepli Live, has garnered good footfalls over its first weekend of release. Estimates are that it grossed around Rs 160 million nationally.

Says veteran distributor and box office statistician Tolu Bajaj, "Peepli Live had a super strong Saturday and continued to pull in movie goers even on Sunday. I would classify it as more than a hit."

The film, which was made on a small budget without the A-listers of Bollywood, follows the mayhem that results on account of a farmer threatening to commit sucide.

"Aamir Khan pulled out all the stops to make the film which can be considered as an independent cinema piece of work into a commercial success," says a trade analyst. "The Aamir brand has worked its magic. Any commercial film maker too would have been more than happy with the box office that Peepli Live has generated so far. Had it been any other film maker, the office results might have been much lower." Peepli Live was released in 600 screens across the country.