Decoding how Pathaan transcended Shah Rukh Khan fandom: 'People who never watch films are scrambling for tickets'

Before the pandemic crippled the theatre business, when Bollywood films did not struggle to bring audiences to the theatre, an opening of Rs 50 crore nett in the domestic market was almost unattainable. In these changed times, when even Rs 20 crore on day one marks wild celebrations, that number looked like a pipe dream. Pathaan somehow managed to not just cross that figure but do it in a way that it seemed like a cakewalk. And in the process, it brought people back to the theatres.

Curiously enough, many of these first day viewers were those who self-confessedly did not even like films or Shah Rukh Khan that much. Pathaan had transcended beyond just the Shah Rukh Khan fandom. The Rs 100-crore worldwide opening shows that the film has been watched by a larger number of people than most had anticipated. An exhibitor says, “I got calls from people asking me to block tickets for the opening day. These are people who don’t even watch films regularly. They are scrambling for first day tickets. That is something I have never seen.” But how did that happen? Why did a masala film – the kind of which have been made hundreds of times in Bollywood – evoke such response from the masses?

It’s out:
‘Pathaan’ day 1 net all-India collections:

Hindi - Rs. 55 crore
Dubbed - Rs. 2 crore
Total - Rs. 57 crore.
Biggest ever opening for a Hindi film. That too, on an odd day which was not a holiday, and the film isn’t a sequel!!

— Komal Nahta (@KomalNahta) January 26, 2023

The answer lies in the lead star. Pathaan is Shah Rukh Khan’s first release as a hero in over four years. The last few films he did were not successful and people had been craving to watch a film that utilizes his stardom the way hits in the 90s and 2000s had. Pathaan’s trailer gave a hint of that potential. That was the beginning of the hype. Actor Ashwath Bhatt argues, “People have been tired of being cheated by films that promise something and deliver something else. They don’t want anything intellectual but just a simple film that entertains them. Pathaan trailer showed a fresh Shah Rukh and the audience felt they were not being cheated after a long time. It is a commercial masala film being marketed as just that.”

But the hype and anticipation ideally stays limited to film fandom and grows beyond that only after the release. In Pathaan, it jumped the gun. Somewhere between the release of the trailer and the release of the film, Pathaan stopped being about Shah Rukh, the actor and became a statement about Shah Rukh, the man. Many people began tweeting that Pathaan wasn’t ‘their kind of cinema’ and yet they were buying tickets. Film critic and screenwriter Raja Sen summed up these emotions when he tweeted, “I don’t like the songs. I can’t stand the trailer. Yet by now I’m super pumped to watch #Pathaan on a giant screen, surrounded by noisy fans.”

I don’t like the songs. I can’t stand the trailer.
Yet by now I’m super pumped to watch #Pathaan on a giant screen, surrounded by noisy fans.
Have a blast, Shah Rukh Khan. Clearly India needs to see you have an infectiously good time.

— Raja Sen (@RajaSen) January 23, 2023

Mandvi Sharma, who worked as Shah Rukh’s publicist for several years, reasons, “Here is a star, an icon, returning after four-and-a-half years. People are already waiting to see him. Then, we have all seen what he has gone through in his personal life in the last year or so. And suddenly, it became about what we felt for Shah Rukh Khan the man and the star. People have seen him, been with him in his struggles. That love for him came across and transcended the film.”

Pathaan also benefitted from its unique promotional strategy. In the last year, several Hindi films have been derailed as the focus in the run-up to the release has shifted to controversies around the stars and boycott calls. Often times, stars have ended up saying or doing things in interviews that have incurred the wrath of some sections. But Yash Raj Films bypassed that by not doing any interviews, and by not responding to any boycott calls. The controversies fizzled out as they controlled the narrative around the film. As soon as the advance booking figures began flooding the newsfeeds, boycott Pathaan news faded.

The result was Pathaan breaking the records set by War and KGF Chapter 2, something that was almost unattainable. The global figure is even more impressive. Trade experts are saying it may end up with a Rs 350-crore extended weekend. To put it in context, Pathaan may end up crossing Brahmastra’s lifetime gross in under a week. That’s a mammoth achievement!

For some, this craze, this mania is the reflection of people being fed up of the ‘hate’ towards Shah Rukh. They say it’s a knee-jerk reaction to how the star has been ‘victimised’. Others do not find any political undertones in it and say it’s just a combination of people looking for entertainment and a superstar providing it. The answer may be somewhere in between. But whatever the case may be, at the centre of it all is Shah Rukh’s enduring likability and his connect with the masses. The good news for those who like him is that he has two more releases lined up. Bollywood may be ‘revived’ or not but Shah Rukh has enough ammunition in his arsenal in 2023 to show just what a superstar truly means.