New Delhi, Aug 23 - His directorial debut 'Makdee' didn't rake in the moolah but was widely appreciated. So were 'Maqbool', 'The Blue Umbrella' and 'Omkara' for their alternative climaxes and literary influences. Now with the huge success of his latest 'Kaminey', versatile filmmaker Vishal Bharadwaj has also proved to be a box-office hit.

'Vishal has always been critically-acclaimed but commercially not that successful. For example, 'Omkara' was a lazy proposition business-wise... it didn't even have a good opening. But the opening for 'Kaminey' has been huge and it has had a good first weekend too,' trade analyst Taran Adarsh told IANS over phone from Mumbai.

'He has proved his credentials with the movie that he is also commercially viable. At the end of the day everything boils down to how rosy your balance sheet looks because the stakes are very high and Vishal, after this film, has realised that it's good to make critically-acclaimed films but it's also necessary to strike a balance,' he said.

Film critic Omar Qureshi also had something similar to say.

'Vishal is now top of the ladder. He is multi-talented and is of a different league altogether post-'Kaminey'. He is a very intelligent filmmaker and versatile...who even writes, composes and sings apart from directing,' said Qureshi.

'He made a movie like 'Maqbool' with lesser-known stars and a great story and then graduated to A-list stars in 'Omkara'. He then decided that he wanted to make an out-and-out big-budget masala movie and so graduated to level three and that too with a very intelligent film,' he added.

Bharadwaj started his Bollyood innings as a composer for Gulzar's 'Maachis' (1996) followed by movies like 'Satya' (1998) and 'Chachi 420' (1998) before taking on the director's mantle.