One year of Pathaan: How Shah Rukh Khan proved in 2023 that OG superstar abhi 'zinda hai', killed 'boycott Bollywood'

By the end of 2022, the obituaries for Shah Rukh Khan’s career had been written. The superstar had not been seen on screen since 2018 and had not delivered a ‘clean hit’ at the box office since 2014. His contemporaries had edges ahead and the pandemic had dealt a death blow to Hindi films. South films were now the biggest grossers and ones with the largest cultural impact too. In such a milieu, on this day, last year, Shah Rukh returned to the big screen. He did so in action, a genre he is not associated with. But Pathaan scripted history, reviving not just SRK himself but probably all of Bollywood.

Pathaan was an unusual film in many ways. It was high-octane action, the kind Shah Rukh hadn’t done since the days of One 2 Ka 4 (you remember) and almost never done convincingly. People had assumed that the film will take a huge opening as the hype of Shah Rukh’s return loomed large. But just how big of a phenomenon it would become was impossible to gauge. Records tumbled at the box office and Pathaan laughed its way to the Rs 1000-crore mark, obliterating several controversies and boycott calls, one orange (saffron?) bikini at a time.

But more than the box office returns, why Pathaan was important was how it galvanised cinegoers. The film pretty much finished the ‘boycott Bollywood’ movement that had affected quite a few releases in 2022. It was not a great film but movie watchers lapped it up, largely due to a loyalty to Shah Rukh. Many said they empathised with the treatment meted out to him and his family over the last few years and wanted to ‘repay him for his years of entertainment’. Only superstars can command that level of devotion and SRK proved why he is one of the last of that dying breed.

To many, Pathaan was a fluke. They said it succeeded because of the hype of his return. It would never be replicated. Even industry insiders agreed. In September came Jawan, and all those analyses were left feeling dumb. Jawan did even better, breaking more records, and settling the debate once and for all if Shah Rukh still ‘had it’. He sure did. That he managed to cross the 1000-crore barrier twice with two slightly above-mid films speaks volumes of his pull at the box office and connect with the crowd.

Then came December and SRK’s dream 2023 concluded with Dunki. He may not have had the perfect ending with the Hirani directorial but it was a sweet one nonetheless. The film clashed with Prabhas’ action saga Salaar and even as it fell behind earlier on, Dunki caught on. As we write this, the film has grossed over Rs 440 crore worldwide, the highest for any non-action Indian film in years. Director Rajkumar Hirani was poignant in his post-release interaction with DNA saying he was never expecting Jawan-Pathaan-type numbers for his film, and was happy that a ‘content film’ had done well.

Dunki’s success underlines Shah Rukh’s best year in almost two decades. 2004 was the last time he had three or more releases in a year and that year gave us Main Hoon Na, Veer-Zaara, and Swades. But the significance of 2023 is greater, for both the star and the film industry he has been the face of for three decades. Bollywood was reeling under boycott calls all of 2022. The likes of Brahmastra suffered because of it. Pathaan put an end to it. It also put on the backburner all those ‘south is defeating Bollywood’ narratives that needlessly pitched different film industries against each other. In 2023, with Jawan, Shah Rukh showed just what the different industries can achieve when collaborating. Months later, Ranbir Kapoor and Sandeep Reddy Vanga re-emphasised it. 2023 was the year two stars showed how it can be ‘North+South’ and not ‘North vs South’.

In the end, Shah Rukh ended 2023 with the two highest-grossing films of the year, and three of the top five Bollywood films of the year. It woul be far-fetched to claim the success of other films in the year had anything to do with Pathaan. Gadar 2 and Animal would have never faced boycott calls anyway. But Pathaan did create a climate where Bollyood films were expected to succeed. It removed some of the hesitation and tentativeness from the minds of the viewer about Hindi films.

2023 was the year when Shah Rukh Khan reminded viewers of his superstardom and along with it revived an entire industry. And funnily enough, he did it without delivering a single interview, just doing what he does best – connecting with fans, be it on Twitter or in cinemas.