ArpitGarg's Weblog

Unthinkable has happened. Fan is going to be SRK movie which falls short of 100 crores. Best estimate is 85 crore by the end of run.

For people like me who have grown up on movies during 1995-2010, it comes as a shock. It was an era when Shahrukh churned blockbusters one after another. There was a famous quote, “In Bollywood either Sharukh sells or sex sells”. This was the era when Salman, Aamir, Akshay were relegated to bygones. Since then Salman has went on to become Bollywood’s Rajnikant; Aamir is on a different planet altogether when it comes to box office collections. Even Ajay, Akshay have come back strongly. All this while Shahrukh has slowly faded.

They say a Superstar don’t need good story to make a movie a hit, he does it by his star power. A super star is defined not by the final collection of the movie, but by the initial (first weekend) it takes. Final collection depends on the content. With Fan even the initial was bad. With Dilwale at least the initial was respectable. But the signs of stagnancy were there.

When Dilwale was beaten by Bajirao Mastani, SRK was humbled. Shetty-Kajol-SRK combined, which was supposed to be a winner, ended up second to Bhansali’s magnum opus. With Fan, there was no zeal even among Shahrukh’s diehard fans.

I am a fan of all kind of cinema. Meaningful or Masala, Hindi or English. My only criterion is, movie should not bore me. With that yardstick, SRK movies have been somewhat boring of late. Bit by bit, they chewed up his stardom. This has led to the present when SRK is not able to command even a blockbuster opening.

How much fans he lost by various controversies in last few years is debatable. Does the intolerance debate lose him following? I hope not.

Maybe age is finally catching up with him. Is this curtain on a fairytale career? I for one would like to see many more romantic blockbusters from SRK. Way ahead looks tricky though.