Will 2023 be the year of Shah Rukh Khan at the Box Office?

The superstar hasn’t had a big-screen release since 2018. His three upcoming movies might be the game-changers he and the industry are looking for

Claps, whistles and cheers! If you have seen Brahmastra Part One: Shiva in the theatre recently, you would know that the biggest applause in a movie that also has performances by superstars such as Amitabh Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Nagarjuna, was reserved for the one and only Shah Rukh Khan. It did not matter if it was a single-screen cinema or a multiplex hall–the cheers and whistles that erupted as his character Mohan Bhargava harnesses the powers of the Vanarastra was the stuff of every Bollywood fan’s dreams. It was almost magical to watch one of the most-loved filmstars in the world do what he does best.

It did not matter if viewers had not seen him play a lead role on the big screen in four years. Nobody mentioned the debacle of When Harry Met Sejal or Zero, the last two movies in which he played the protagonists. After all, this was Shah Rukh Khan–the man who had entertained and captivated audiences’ imagination for three decades. In fact, one of the tweets that followed his special appearance in Brahmastra read, “SRK doesn’t need Bollywood; Bollywood needs SRK”.

While that may be up for debate, what is not is the positive buzz surrounding his next three releases. It all started earlier this year in March when the actor posted an announcement of his YRF project Pathaan on his social media accounts. Just a month later, he posted a promotional video of his upcoming film Dunki with director Rajkumar Hirani. Then, in June, SRK promised his fans an action-packed 2023 with Atlee Kumar’s Jawan.
The question, then, is, has his distance from the big screen really made the audience’s hearts fonder and are they willing to move on from the failure of his last few films? And if the answer is yes, then will all the hype translate into big numbers at the Box Office?

A magical quality

There is no denying the fact that SRK, who is counted among one of the biggest superstars in the world, has kept the audiences in sway for 30 years. Khan showed he meant business when the TV actor from New Delhi moved to Mumbai and made his film debut with Deewana in 1992, winning quite a few awards in the process. His professional journey only strengthened over the years with movies such as Darr, Baazigar, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Dil Toh Pagal Hai, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Devdas, Veer Zaara, Chak De! India, Om Shanti Om, Don, Chennai Express and Happy New Year among others.

However, his acting prowess is not the only reason film directors want to work with him, or audiences have flocked to the theatres worldwide to watch him. Filmmaker Gauri Shinde, who worked with the actor in Dear Zindagi, believes there are some innate traits he possesses that makes him stand out amidst his contemporaries. “He is not just a superlative artist but what makes him exceptional is his overall attitude, his magnetic personality, his thirst for the craft, his warmth and love. Despite being a huge star, his humility and his surrender as an actor to the director, his faith in the film and the director and constant perseverance of bettering himself is unique,” she says.

It is this magical quality–one that is difficult to put a finger on–that endears him to his co-stars as well. In a recent interview with The Established, his Dunki-co-star Taapsee Pannu had mentioned that she finds it hard not to behave like a fangirl around him on the sets. “I know I will not get another chance if I keep fangirling and end up being not good enough in the frame with him,” she said.

Watching the actor greet his legions of fans with love and affection when they gather outside his house Mannat, or the wit and humility with which he interacts with them on social media has ensured he has a permanent place in their hearts. Samar Khan, CEO-OTT Juggernaut Productions–who has worked closely with the superstar while directing the 10-part series titled Living with a Superstar and authored the book SRK–25 Years of a Life–believes that it is the way the King of Bollywood conducts himself that his fans have always stood by him.

“He was still a good person when his films were doing well and the world was at his feet. He remained a good person when he was going through a low phase and things started unravelling for him. Somewhere down the line, it is this goodness that the audience has taken from him, which endears him to people across all age groups and countries. That is the greatness of Shah Rukh Khan,” he believes.

Going through the lows

For any actor in Bollywood, a couple of failures at the Box Office can spell doom. However, industry experts believe that SRK is someone who is beyond successes and failures. Producer and film business expert Girish Johar believes that after working in Bollywood for 30 years, SRK has seen all kinds of ups and downs. “Certain stars are above these parameters. Having said that, they cannot ignore it because at the ground level, you have to satiate the expectations of the fans,” he adds.

Movies such as Zero and When Harry Met Sejal might not have met his fans’ expectations but Khan points out that the actor was trying to do something new in them and that might not always go as planned. Citing the excitement and positive response to his cameos in films such as Rocketry: The Nambi Effect, Laal Singh Chaddha and especially Brahmastra, he adds that it shows that people have missed him and are waiting to see him on the big screen. In fact, his cameo in the latter was so much fun that a couple of his fans started an online petition for a spinoff to his character Vanarastra. “I signed and shared that petition on social media as well,” Johar tells us, adding that it clearly shows that his fans are awaiting his next release with arms wide open.

Talking business

The rejection of a slew of recent big-budget films such as Shamshera, Raksha Bandhan, Dhaakad, Samrat Prithviraj, Om: The Battle Within and Bachchan Paandey denotes that the average viewer is not happy when Bollywood churns out content they just don’t find exciting anymore. In the last three years–especially with the pandemic and the subsequent rise of content across OTT platforms–audiences seem to have moved on to performers who are ‘actors’ more than ‘superstars’. However, Khan believes that superstars like the three Khans–Aamir, Salman and Shah Rukh–don’t go out of fashion just because audiences have so many newer talents to look at. “A clear example of this is Top Gun: Maverick. We have had newer stars and films, but this movie has had a collection of more than a billion dollars worldwide, and it’s because of the magic of Tom Cruise,” he points out.

Film exhibitor Akshaye Rathi does not beat around the bush when he says that he expects nothing short of euphoria at the cinemas once SRK’s films are released. “I’m quite sure all these films will do extraordinarily well at the Box Office because they have pretty much everything working for them. Pathaan has a director like Siddharth Anand who’s made War. He understands scale and action. Atlee Kumar is a hardcore commercial filmmaker who understands the elements required in a movie that really turn it into a mass entertainer. And then there is Rajkumar Hirani, a director who comes with a 100 per cent track record, and rightfully so, because the stories he tells are absolutely unprecedented. So I’m pretty sure that between these movies, it would not be an exaggeration to say that 2023 will be the year of Shah Rukh Khan at the BO,” he signs off.

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