Box-Office Had To Pay A Heavy Price This Year With No Shah Rukh Khan Movie Releases

Amid what seems like a cluster of 2020-somethings, 2023 felt like a breath of fresh air – courtesy Shah Rukh Khan’s much-awaited comeback to the big screen. Taking the 2023 earnings by storm, one film at a time, Shah Rukh broke Bollywood’s curse of Hindi movies failing to make a mark leading to dry box-office runs. 

2023 began with Siddharth Anand’s Pathaan, marking the beginning of SRK’s Movies 2.0 feat. Becoming the first Hindi film to cross Rs 1,000 crore at the box-office worldwide, Pathaan raked in Rs 1055 crore. It earned Rs 100 crore in the first two days, Rs 200 crore in four days, Rs 300 crore in seven days, Rs 400 crore in 12 days, and Rs 500 crore in 28 days. 

One would expect countless press conferences and interviews to promote the tour de force. Instead, the makers adopted a unique approach to market THE comeback of the year – no interviews. 

However, this was not Yash Raj Films’ maiden attempt at this approach. One of the most coveted production houses in the country adopted the same method in 2008 during Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi promotions, which marked Anushka Sharma’s debut in films. No interviews with the debuting actress everyone had questions about.

The only difference between the 2008 film and Pathaan – the influence of social media. At a time when people couldn’t look up an emerging ‘national crush’ on Instagram, they had no option but to go watch the film to savour every moment of (big) screen time. 

But was this approach going to work in 2023? 

Surprisingly, it did. “Only s*x and Shah Rukh Khan sell” indeed!

The makers capitalised on the common man’s longing to see Shah Rukh Khan again after a half-a-decade hiatus and focused on the release of songs and trailers (and a chiselled body at 57), generating a lot of buzz. 

But in this line of action, did social media play a role? It did, as much as SRK’s sharp wit and keen sense of humour. Shah Rukh Khan became the common man’s man by using X to directly communicate with his fans through several #AskSRK sessions.

That it worked for the film is a fact, no doubt. But the genius of this marketing strategy lies in what didn’t meet the eye.   

The promotional strategy for Pathaan started a long time back, when in 2022, Shah Rukh became the face of Thums Up’s Soft Drink Nahin, Toofan campaign. Long hair tied in a pony, six packs, action sequence atop a train – the short ad was almost a teaser of Pathaan. 

Speaking to a publication, N. Chandramouli, CEO of TRA Research, a consumer analytics and brand insights company, remarked, “The new brand endorsement by SRK was a win-win for both, and if they wanted to start with a ‘toofan’, then the advertising campaign had to be different.”

The ad for the beverage brand was just the beginning. SRK sported the Pathaan look for over a year, across several projects, till the point where it hit the eager wait of his target audience. The audience was tantalised, their curiosity rekindled, and they couldn’t wait for Pathaan.

The song drops with Besharam Rang and the title track Jhoome Jo Pathaan hit just the right chord. The makers just dropped the song, the audience did the rest. The songs were everywhere, logging in record-breaking views. 

Pathaan was a success even before its release, laying the groundwork for Red Chillies Entertainment for SRK’s next release of the year – Jawan. 

Delivering a second blockbuster in just nine months was not a co-incidence. SRK knew he had to surpass Pathaan‘s earnings, so he did what he does best – go as grand as a movie star of his stature does!

When the tallest building in the world and the busiest and most happening area in the world play the trailer of a movie, how does an Indian resist the urge to not talk about it? The trailer of the film was played on Dubai’s Burj Khalifa and at Times Square.

But, smart marketing is knowing that global appeal is just the tip of the iceberg. Connecting to people back home is imperative! So what Jawan did was to cater to not just Hindi-film audience, but also tapped into the homelands of the director and its leading lady – the South!

SRK, Atlee, Nayanthara – The Holy Trifecta that had little chance of failure. 

The timing of Nayanthara’s Instagram debut just before the release of the film, gaining over a million followers in just 10 hours, more #AskSRK sessions on X, a Jawan-themed Dahi Handi, brand partnerships with Zomato and Bisleri with limited edition line of ‘Bisleri’s X Jawan’ bottles, the trailer release only a week before the film’s release date, a grand pre-release event at Sri Sai Ram Engineering College in Chennai – everything that could go right, went right. 

No public appearances still, though. SRK’s mantra was clear – if you want access to Shah Rukh Khan, watching my movie is the only way.  

SRK’s marketing finesse earned his home production Rs 1,148.32 crore worldwide with an opening day collection of Rs 129.06 crore, making it the highest-grossing Indian film of 2023, the second highest-grossing Hindi film, and the sixth highest-grossing Indian film of all time. 

Pathaan and Jawan‘s success proved that the appetite of the Indian market is not just endless, but also desperate. More than the SRK’s absence from the screen, the desperation also came from the sympathy for India’s favourite superstar, sympathy for a father trying to protect his son.

When Aryan Khan was arrested after the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) busted a drug party on a cruise ship, it becoming national news was not surprising. But what also happened was that it became fodder for tabloids and gossipmongers. 

During the raid on October 2, 2021, the NCB recovered drugs like hashish, cocaine and MD from the cruise. Along with Aryan Khan, several others were detained. But Aryan was arrested under sections 8C, 20B, 27 and 35 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

Over the course of multiple hearings, NCB argued that Aryan Khan was a “regular user of contraband” for years, and that his WhatsApp chats suggest international drug trafficking. Though, Aryan Khan’s counsel reasoned that NCB cannot have any case against him since nothing was recovered from him. 

After spending close to a month in judicial custody, Aryan was granted bail. 

What shook the nation was SRK’s silence during the entire row, and his absence from the public eye.

So, when SRK said in Jawan, “Bete ko hath lagane se pehle, baap se baat kar (Before touching the son, deal with the father,)” people had to visit the theatres for this seeti-bajao (whistle) moment. 

2024 began with the knowledge that SRK would have no releases this year. But even the Bollywood box-office probably did not see a loss of this magnitude coming its way. 

This year, four out of the five highest-grossing Indian films were South Indian projects. That sums up the impact that Shah Rukh had on box-office numbers. 

Pushpa 2: The Rule, Kalki 2898 AD, Devara: Part 1, and The Greatest of All Time ruled the numbers, and had Indian audience in a chokehold. The South biggies – Allu Arjun, Prabhas, NTR Jr, and Thalapathy Vijay’s tete-a-tete with blockbusters is not new. 

But Bollywood’s fate could be described, at its best, as a drag. The only Hindi movie to have made it to the list is Stree 2, which earned Rs 857.15 crore worldwide, barely crossing even the halfway mark to Jawan‘s success.  

Our #2024Wrapped verdict: Bollywood needs Shah Rukh Khan more than Shah Rukh Khan needs Bollywood.