Gone are the days when star power, dreamy locations and a couple of songs in a film were enough to bring movie lovers to theatres. Today, the audience is not ready to settle for anything less than ‘out of the box content’ and ‘phenomenal performances’. The line between parallel cinema and mainstream commercial cinema is blurring, and it seems that the
golden age is dawning for the film industry.
The year 2018 has been witness to how deep-rooted content was strongly backed by performance-driven megastars including Alia Bhatt (‘Raazi’), Akshay Kumar (‘PadMan’), Salman Khan (‘Sultan’) and Varun Dhawan (‘October’) — who acknowledged the changing scenario and evolved accordingly. However, the crowned king of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan is still struggling to create a niche in the new era of filmmaking.
With back to back failures, ranging from ‘Raees’, ‘Dilwale’, ‘Fan’ to ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’ (with just Rs 150 crore in worldwide grosses) — he has been failing to find his groove at the box office. This subdued business makes it worrying for SRK’s backers and fans, given his decades-long rule in the Hindi film industry.
Where does the problem lie?
Murli Chhatwani, Managing Partner at Panorama Studios Distribution LLP, believes that fans expect a lot more from SRK and that the star needs to take up roles that do justice to his age and stardom. “He is a pretty good actor and has been a superstar for 25 years. Actors his age are still doing well, so in no way, is it an end for him. He just needs
to be selective in his work,” Murli says.
Pointing out how excessive action was one reason for the downward trend of SRK, Murli adds, “Generally people want to feed on romance in every SRK film. However, in the last few years, we saw him doing too much of action in Raees, Fan and other films, which doesn’t go down very well with him.”
If that alone was the case, why did hard-core romantic dramas like ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’ and ‘Dilwale’ — which brought together the most popular on-screen couple SRK-Kajol — also fall flat at the box office?
“He is unarguably the best when it comes to romance but the audience is keen to hear new stories,” asserts Murli. “Even within romance, he needs to explore the unexplored. For example, the 2007 flick Cheeni Kum beautifully showed Amitji (Amitabh Bachchan) romancing a girl half his age. But there was an interesting angle which made it one of its kind. Shah Rukh should look for more reality-based films. He needs to come out of the formula genre and prove his potential.”
While Shah Rukh’s dimpled smile, irresistible charms, and signature pose can make anyone fall in love with him, this doesn’t seem to be working as of now. In a scenario like this, fans are betting on Zero in which he will evidently let go off his typical Bollywood hero image. This Aanand Rai film is the long-awaited chance for SRK to recapture lost glory.
Will Zero bring SRK back in the game?
“The trailer of Zero certainly has a spark that has been missing in SRK’s recent films. Romance has always been Shah Rukh Khan’s forte and not many actors can use the space as well as he can. The best example is the song ‘Mere naam tu…’ wherein he is once again seen jumping and dancing all around using the empty spaces so well. I think it is quintessentially SRK,” says Murtaza Ali Khan, film critic. However, he believes that the success of Zero will depend on how well the team of Aanand L Rai and Himanshu Sharma succeed in depicting his character’s vulnerabilities.
“If one looks at SRK’s best performances, he is either an underdog or an unconventional hero. In Zero he appears to be both and so everything now rests on the film’s ability to bring these qualities out well and if that happens we have a blockbuster in the making,” Murtaza believes.
Of the three Khans, SRK has always taken the greatest risks. Baazigar, Darr, Swades, Ra. One, and Fan are great examples. But the risks haven’t paid off in recent times. It would be really interesting to see if Zero can reverse the trend.
What is the probability of success?
Movie clashes haven’t worked in Shah Rukh’s favour lately. Be it ‘Dilwale’ which clashed with ‘Bajirao Mastani’ or ‘Raees’ which clashed with ‘Kaabil’, the box office collection was affected drastically. And this time, the unwelcoming clash is with Rohit Shetty’s ‘Simmba’. Though the movie is releasing a week after Zero, the trade analysts believe that the number of screens in the second week will directly depend on the box office collection of the first week. Therefore, Zero needs to do business in its first week; else screens will be given to Ranveer Singh starrer ‘Simmba’. As the pressure builds, here’s anticipating the thumping return of our ‘Hero’!
