The ‘Truth’ about Shahrukh’s box office..

Raj5 instigated this, then there were some kind comments on it, finally Munna urged me (and I don’t require very much in these matters) to put up a new post on this. hence if anyone’s upset with me direct your anger to the above-mentioned folks! I’m just putting up the comment as is. There might be typos or whatever but I can’t bear going through my long comments again!

My points (often distorted by those who didn’t like what I said in this regard) were a few..

1)SRK was easily the most iconic star of ‘New India’ which is to say a post-economic reforms dispensation nation. He represented the ethos of the new upwardly mobile classes. He starred in the most iconic films of the age. Obviously he was a very important box office force, even the ‘biggest’ inasmuch as he did the biggest films and the rest followed.

2)However if you leave aside the big Yashraj/Johar films suddenly his record looks distinctively ordinary. The successes are very few (at any level) once you take away those banners (referring to a post-DDLJ career here in the 90s when he had a relatively high volume). If you then compare Aamir’s career and also account for the fact that he was pretty much staying away from the dominant genres of the period his success rate is much more impressive, again counting from ’94 and beyond. His ratio is easily the best even then. He has a megabit like RH but of course the media doesn’t really care about it at that point. And he has lesser hits that are also not iconic for the most part. Salman comes back at some point towards the later 90s and does well for a while before pretty much disappearing over the next decade (Wanted and in the truest sense Dabanng, there is stuff like MSK and Partner in between but nothing that changes the narrative for him).

3)In the new millennium Hrithik suddenly emerges, Aamir completely changes everything with Lagaan. After this point Aamir really starts setting himself apart with every film collecting for himself an astonishing amount of critical and commercial success (which of course climaxes in Ghajini and 3I). Hrithik stagnates after a while but he keeps having these high points once every few years (’06 with D2 and Krrish is his career best, so far). The point here is that SRK in this entire past decade and since can never match the biggest grosses of a Filmkraft Hrithik venture on his own nor can he do anything to rival Aamir in the prestige sweepstakes. Eventually Aamir has the biggest hits of all and Salman wakes up from the dead and performs an enormous U-turn in his career beyond which every film gets a big initial. You put it all together and SRK is constantly on the defensive in this period, constantly having to prove that he is either the biggest or belongs with the biggest. The problem is that he is unable to set the pace anymore. for a few years into the decade he still remains the most iconic (arguably) but I’d say after 2004 nothing is ever the same for him again. It’s been a decade since. He had nothing in ’05 except for Paheli, KANK fizzled out in ’06, and Abhishek got more attention, Don was ok though nothing spectacular, in ’07 he was back with a bang with OSO/CDI but somehow couldn’t capitalize on it later. RNBDJ didn’t open huge (though trended well) and was completely eclipsed by Ghajini. Then MNIk was another damp squib. Ra One was a big crash. JTHJ much like MNIK. Don2 sluggish as well. But then suddenly 7 years after OSO he had a huge moment in CE. He tried to make it a one two punch with HNY and everything was certainly in place but looks like that’s not happening. But even if you start counting before 2004, even when SRK has other hits the point is he doesn’t have the biggest absolute ones. And all of this isn’t a problem unless you keep selling the idea that you’re the biggest or that you’re a superstar. Though this word is much abused, much cheapened in contemporary and though it has more or less lost all meaning one could argue that Salman with one big initial after another (even if most of the films trend poorly) and in a compressed period of time at least makes that sort of claim more understandable. SRK never did the Aamir thing where the lesser grosses could be made up by prestigious films that were extremely iconic (RDB or DCH or whatever) but nor did he have the consistency that Salman did. Nor did he on his best day outgross everyone else.

4) This doesn’t mean that SRK isn’t still a huge star. He clearly is. the opening day of HNY proves this. But the problem is a) it takes him much more to get that initial than it takes Salman. He can’t just walk into any film and get it done. It has to be a big circus in some form or fashion. And/or it has to be crazily hyped. b) the ‘biggest’ stars also need to have the real prestige films. SRK doesn’t have them. Salman doesn’t either but it matters less to his narrative.

5) If you then think ahead of what the historical claim of many of these stars might be Aamir is the only one in that generation in a good position. because he has many works that will probably be revisited over time. It’s always hard to make these predictions because not everything worthwhile is necessarily reinvented but the worthless is on the other hand ‘never’ reinvented! SRK might have classics for the future with a few films but over time just success in a given age doesn’t count. It’s the films and if you’re calling card is just the Yashraj stuff (and maybe a Dil Se or Swades here and there) things get tricky.

The last point here is the least relevant to your question. But I was just trying to be as thorough as possible. It would be foolish to underestimate SRK’s stardom and I never have. But it’s a question of relative weakness when you’re a certain kind of star. It’s not just about him. Why do we talk so much about Abhishek? Whatever he has or has not achieved it wouldn’t matter if one just had Saif-like expectations for him! So depending on the star’s narrative it’s about what the opposition is doing. Once SRK was Bachchanesque in the overseas markets, in India he was ordinary on comparison (even at his peak) but again he had the iconic stuff and this coupled with extraordinarily generous media coverage he got papered over the gap. For a long time now the overseas thing has vanished too. We see with HNY how even with the SLAM concerts explicitly designed to promote the film he couldn’t catch D3. Nonetheless still a very major star. The question is: what does it take (in every sense) to get him to a big one? I think it is this reinvention question SRK hasn’t successfully answered for very many years. The Yashraj paradigm is done but he’s been struggling to find the alternative. In fairness there isn’t an easy answer for him. On the other hand I think, specially given his strengths, he’s made a series of extremely poor choices. There’s no way that post KANK he shouldn’t have had a way better track record than he does given his audience base and all his history. For instance he could have done much better scripts with Yashraj and Johar. He could have insisted on this. He needn’t have become so obsessed with the Don stuff. He could have done better with the Ra One idea. So on and so forth. And even this late in the day couldn’t he have detected some sort of problem with HNY? And it’s not as if he did some very risky films like D6 or Raavan or whatever and failed. He failed or underperformed in very commercial stuff. Secondly why didn’t he follow the CDI lead and do other smaller films? Even today though Raees and Fan might work isn’t there something better he could be doing? Fan looks to have a double for him. The star and the guy obsessed with the star. I suspect SRK isn’t the star to be able to pull this off convincingly beyond some sort of initial. Unless there’s a good script here. Then you have Farhan Akhtar as cop chasing him as gangster. Anything can work of course but these don’t sound like the most promising films (barring surprises). SRK just doesn’t have that sort of script sense. Even in the 90s the Duplicate, Baadshah kind of deal never really worked for him beyond an initial. He could have been definitive still in some ways, something in between Salman and Aamir (incidentally I also think he could have done much better with his Yashraj history.. those romances could have been updated). As things stand he can still come up with the initial but the opportunity cost of doing so greatly increases. You have HNY more or less ending up in YJHD range (unless it remains very stable at this point and does something more).

People talk about Abhishek a lot but SRK’s own career this past decade has been one of missed opportunities. Much as a in a different way Hrithik’s entire career is one of stagnation. yes he’s one of the biggest openers, he was this after KNPH, hasn’t really done anything other than to prove this from time to time. Don’t think this was his only aim. He clearly was waiting to take over at some point but this isn’t a job where you ‘graduate’ to something better. His Bang Bang failed much like Kites. ZNMD didn’t really do enough for his ‘alternative’ career, Agneepath hasn’t led to anything along those lines (he should have done the Johar follow up rather than Bang Bang), Krrish underperformed rather badly, and now there are a number of stars outgrossing him on a good day or quite often.

Anyway this has gone on too long! I should stop.