Amid what looks like a cluster of 2020-somethings, 2023 felt like a breath of recent air – courtesy Shah Rukh Khan’s much-awaited comeback to the massive display. Taking the 2023 earnings by storm, one movie at a time, Shah Rukh broke Bollywood’s curse of Hindi films failing to make a mark resulting in dry box-office runs.
2023 started with Siddharth Anand’s Pathaan, marking the start of SRK’s Films 2.0 feat. Changing into the primary Hindi movie to cross Rs 1,000 crore on the box-office worldwide, Pathaan raked in Rs 1055 crore. It earned Rs 100 crore within the first two days, Rs 200 crore in 4 days, Rs 300 crore in seven days, Rs 400 crore in 12 days, and Rs 500 crore in 28 days.
One would anticipate numerous press conferences and interviews to advertise the tour de drive. As a substitute, the makers adopted a singular strategy to market THE comeback of the 12 months – no interviews.
Nonetheless, this was not Yash Raj Movies’ maiden try at this strategy. One of the crucial coveted manufacturing homes within the nation adopted the identical methodology in 2008 throughout Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi promotions, which marked Anushka Sharma’s debut in movies. No interviews with the debuting actress everybody had questions on.
The one distinction between the 2008 movie and Pathaan – the affect of social media. At a time when individuals could not search for an rising ‘nationwide crush’ on Instagram, they’d no choice however to go watch the movie to savour each second of (huge) display time.
However was this strategy going to work in 2023?
Surprisingly, it did. “Solely s*x and Shah Rukh Khan promote” certainly!
The makers capitalised on the frequent man’s longing to see Shah Rukh Khan once more after a half-a-decade hiatus and centered on the discharge of songs and trailers (and a chiselled physique at 57), producing plenty of buzz.
However on this line of motion, did social media play a job? It did, as a lot as SRK’s sharp wit and eager sense of humour. Shah Rukh Khan turned the frequent man’s man through the use of X to immediately talk together with his followers via a number of #AskSRK periods.
That it labored for the movie is a reality, little question. However the genius of this advertising technique lies in what did not meet the attention.
The promotional technique for Pathaan began a very long time again, when in 2022, Shah Rukh turned the face of Thums Up’s Delicate Drink Nahin, Toofan marketing campaign. Lengthy hair tied in a pony, six packs, motion sequence atop a prepare – the quick advert was virtually a teaser of Pathaan.
Chatting with a publication, N. Chandramouli, CEO of TRA Analysis, a client analytics and model insights firm, remarked, “The brand new model endorsement by SRK was a win-win for each, and in the event that they needed to begin with a ‘toofan’, then the promoting marketing campaign needed to be completely different.”
The advert for the beverage model was just the start. SRK sported the Pathaan search for over a 12 months, throughout a number of tasks, until the purpose the place it hit the keen wait of his target market. The viewers was tantalised, their curiosity rekindled, they usually could not anticipate Pathaan.
The music drops with Besharam Rang and the title monitor Jhoome Jo Pathaan hit simply the correct chord. The makers simply dropped the music, the viewers did the remainder. The songs have been all over the place, logging in record-breaking views.
Pathaan was a hit even earlier than its launch, laying the groundwork for Purple Chillies Leisure for SRK’s subsequent launch of the 12 months – Jawan.
Delivering a second blockbuster in simply 9 months was not a co-incidence. SRK knew he needed to surpass Pathaan‘s earnings, so he did what he does greatest – go as grand as a film star of his stature does!
When the tallest constructing on this planet and the busiest and most taking place space on this planet play the trailer of a film, how does an Indian resist the urge to not discuss it? The trailer of the movie was performed on Dubai’s Burj Khalifa and at Occasions Sq..
However, sensible advertising is figuring out that international enchantment is simply the tip of the iceberg. Connecting to individuals again house is crucial! So what Jawan did was to cater to not simply Hindi-film viewers, but in addition tapped into the homelands of the director and its main girl – the South!
SRK, Atlee, Nayanthara – The Holy Trifecta that had little probability of failure.
The timing of Nayanthara’s Instagram debut simply earlier than the discharge of the movie, gaining over one million followers in simply 10 hours, extra #AskSRK periods on X, a Jawan-themed Dahi Handi, model partnerships with Zomato and Bisleri with restricted version line of ‘Bisleri’s X Jawan’ bottles, the trailer launch solely per week earlier than the movie’s launch date, a grand pre-release occasion at Sri Sai Ram Engineering School in Chennai – every part that would go proper, went proper.
No public appearances nonetheless, although. SRK’s mantra was clear – if you would like entry to Shah Rukh Khan, watching my film is the one approach.
SRK’s advertising finesse earned his dwelling manufacturing Rs 1,148.32 crore worldwide with a gap day assortment of Rs 129.06 crore, making it the highest-grossing Indian movie of 2023, the second highest-grossing Hindi movie, and the sixth highest-grossing Indian movie of all time.
Pathaan and Jawan‘s success proved that the urge for food of the Indian market isn’t just countless, but in addition determined. Greater than the SRK’s absence from the display, the desperation additionally got here from the sympathy for India’s favorite celebrity, sympathy for a father attempting to guard his son.
When Aryan Khan was arrested after the Narcotics Management Bureau (NCB) busted a drug occasion on a cruise ship, it changing into nationwide information was not stunning. However what additionally occurred was that it turned fodder for tabloids and gossipmongers.
Throughout the raid on October 2, 2021, the NCB recovered medicine like cannabis, cocaine and MD from the cruise. Together with Aryan Khan, a number of others have been detained. However Aryan was arrested beneath sections 8C, 20B, 27 and 35 of the Narcotic Medicine and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Over the course of a number of hearings, NCB argued that Aryan Khan was a “common consumer of contraband” for years, and that his WhatsApp chats recommend worldwide drug trafficking. Although, Aryan Khan’s counsel reasoned that NCB can not have any case towards him since nothing was recovered from him.
After spending near a month in judicial custody, Aryan was granted bail.
What shook the nation was SRK’s silence throughout the complete row, and his absence from the general public eye.
So, when SRK mentioned in Jawan, “Bete ko hath lagane se pehle, baap se baat kar (Earlier than touching the son, cope with the daddy,)” individuals needed to go to the theatres for this seeti-bajao (whistle) second.
2024 started with the information that SRK would don’t have any releases this 12 months. However even the Bollywood box-office most likely didn’t see a lack of this magnitude coming its approach.
This 12 months, 4 out of the 5 highest-grossing Indian movies have been South Indian tasks. That sums up the affect that Shah Rukh had on box-office numbers.
Pushpa 2: The Rule, Kalki 2898 AD, Devara: Half 1, and The Best of All Time dominated the numbers, and had Indian viewers in a chokehold. The South biggies – Allu Arjun, Prabhas, NTR Jr, and Thalapathy Vijay’s tete-a-tete with blockbusters shouldn’t be new.
However Bollywood’s destiny might be described, at its greatest, as a drag. The one Hindi film to have made it to the listing is Stree 2, which earned Rs 857.15 crore worldwide, barely crossing even the midway mark to Jawan‘s success.
Our #2024Wrapped verdict: Bollywood wants Shah Rukh Khan greater than Shah Rukh Khan wants Bollywood.
Discover more from News Journals
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
