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Here are 11 things SRK must do to become box office Badshah again!!

-By Arindam Chaudhuri

>>Please note, this article is focused primarily on box office stardom and not other parameters<<

I Watched Zero yesterday night and quite liked it. But if it touches 100cr at the box office, I would consider it to be a miracle... But I repeat, I liked it... It's not blockbuster masala.. it's not good cinema.. it's a lovely fantasy film with brilliant performances. .. I had a lovely time... Felt good... Laughed enough.. unlike most critics found the second half as good... In fact most of us felt that...

In any case with every passing day I think SRK is perhaps one of the best actors we have ever had. He is just brilliant with his expanse... Anushka was another brilliance... And does Katrina need brilliance? Not really. Her presence itself increased the glam quotient a few notches of the otherwise bland looking film.

But guess SRK right now doesn't need praise for his acting. He needed it when he was the badshah of the box office. Today he needs the cash registers ringing again. And that isn't going to happen with Zero.

Post 2007, despite 8 years of continuous box office dip and 3 years of box office disasters my belief in SRK has only increased. After falling in complete love with SRK in DDLJ and seeing him leave all his contemporaries like Aamir and Salman faaaar behind in terms of box office collections, it's obviously been painful for me to see his films fall behind systematically since 2007 and then being complete box office disasters since 2016. 2007 was the year when OSO released. Post that 8 years till 2015 weren't really that bad- he had Rab ne Bana Di Jodi, MNIK, Don 2, Jab Tak Hai Jaan, Chennai Express and Happy New Year and Dilwaale (the 2015 film Dilwaale though though might have been far bigger but went down due to a wave of fake patriotism in India that targeted SRK individually). But barring Chennai Express - his only film that has ever seen collections beyond 200cr in India - these films havent really done justice to his status of being called box office badshah. More importantly in all these 8 years Aamir or Salmam had a far bigger hit. Aamir came back with Taare Zameen Pe in 2007, then reinvented himself as box office great in 2008 with Ghajni and then since 2009 with Three Idiots became unbeatable. Salman came back with Wanted in 2009 and then with Dabang in 2010 went into the same league of Aamir Khan's box office stature. Today the top 14 biggest box office films of India are packed with Aamir and Salman films with even one Ranveer and Ranbir film slipping in apart from the Bahubali saga. The first SRK film - Chennai Express- in the all time top grossers list comes at a distant No. 15. Top grossers are now doing 400 to 600 cr... Global revenues are even touching 2000 cr and SRK is yet to see a single film in that league.

A funny trivia here. Rohit Shetty's two biggest films ever are with SRK - at No.15 Chennai Express and at No. 18 Dilwaale (Golmaal Again is at a distant No.25) and yet he isn't repeating him and the image is his biggest films come with Ajay Devgan while with SRK he underperforms. That's the sad part of the box office game. When you are called Badshah you are expected to do 400 to 500cr. If you are Ajay Devgan then even with this 25th highest grossing film (or if you are Akshay Kumar then even with the 24th highest grossing film - Toilet Ek Prem Katha) as your biggest blockbuster ever, you are considered a more bankable star.

Coming back to SRK. Despite losing the box office battle for 8 continuous years to Aamir and Salman till 2015 he did give those 7 big films and only Billu and Ra.One bombed.

But since 2016 for 3 years now, it's not just Aamir and Salman but everyone passing by has been beating him at the box office. No not just Ranveer, Ranbir, Akshay, Ajay Devgan but even Kareena, Kangana, Alia, Varun Dhawan, Ayushman Khurana and Rajkumar Rao. In these 5 years SRK has given 5 back to back disasters in the form of Fan, Dear Zindagi, Raees, Jab Harry Met Sejal and now Zero.

With these 5 flops in 3 years and a 8 year patch before that without the year's top grosser, it's time indeed to look at what's going wrong with SRK and what he needs to do to get back his box office status.

Here are my 11 points for him.

1. SRK must realise that there are different parameters for judging a good cinema star like Rajkumar Rao, a new gen masala star like Varun Dhawan, an established super star like Akshay Kumar, a new gen superstar like Ranveer Singh or Ranbir Kapoor and mega blockbuster stars like him, Aamir or Salman. That's the unfortunate truth of stardom. A Leonardo for example just can't do films that smaller actors like Bradley Cooper are doing and getting acclaim. SRK is already set for another disaster because I hear he is doing the sequel to Hindi Medium. Now look at the problem. First of all Hindi Medium itself was a C grade film. But unfortunately we Indians are so starved of good cinema that when some stupid shadow of a good cinema comes and has a typical 'so called good cinema actor' starring, we praise that. Anyways even if it was good cinema it is for Rajkumar Rao, Irfaan Khan and Nawazuddin league from a box office perspective. They come with less expectations, less price and and less cost of making and they are known only for good acting (as per typical critics outlook where the tendency is to make you believe that if you aren't a star and can act then you are a good actor but if you are a star then you can't act). These films aren't made for the likes of SRK. Aamir or Salman would never touch such films. Even if it is good it will be panned because such small directors and small budget films will have a box office potential of a Max 100 cr and will look nothing in front of the kind of box office expectations from an SRK film.

So SRK needs to pick directors and films that are big canvas and have massive box office potential. Films don't become big due to the Star. Just because he is in it, won't make it big. The films have to be big canvas. That's the unfortunate box office game of show business.

SRK has to be in a big canvas film to make it big.

2. Instead of going to directors who are one or two film wonders he should go back to Karan Johar, Farah Khan, Aditya Chopra, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Farhan Akhtar and Rohit Shetty and hope one of their films will click. Where is Don 3? Where is Dhoom 4? Where is his next period drama...

But far more than that he should personally call Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra for a private dinner. And after exchanging pleasantries directly request them to take him in their next film. Even if that means becoming Munnabhai in the next sequel. Even if that means sacrificing his ego and not being the producer of that film and just being an actor.

3. He should trust big directors and not interfere in their direction even if they are people he can overpower. While Yash Chopraji was a super senior and he obeyed and did some of his best work with him, he can easily overpower say a Rohit Shetty. The problem then is it ruins the style of a director. Rohit makes films with crass humour. SRK should let him do that and not make the humour intelligent. That wipes off at least a hundred crores from the film. Had the effort not been in Chennai Express and Dilwale to cater to SRK persona and rather catered to Rohit Shetty persona they would have done at least 100cr extra. One of the biggest problem with SRK has been his elitist appeal. He makes it more elitist by making the humour sharp. To be a part of the 400 to 2000cr films he has to get massy. Mouth very simple massy dialogues like don't underestimate the power of the common man. Maybe even more massy.

Also he has to forget about DDLJ and stop repeating the train scene etc or think of doing films with Kajol etc to revive the old magic. He needs to stop beating the dead horse. It won't go to drink water anymore.

4. SRK is one of the best actors ever. He shouldn't ever doubt that even when his films don't do good. He is the best. His over acting is his power (I used to wrongly think otherwise earlier). He should never try to act what he isn't. It ruins the film. His effort to act restrained and extra mature made Dear Zindagi look really stupid. Even if he grows a beard he shouldn't try to act differently like he did in Dilwaale, Dear Zindagi and Raees. He should remember while Amitabh changed his look, his acting nuances remained same. Changing your look is good. But not changing acting style that clicked. People go to see his energy. Not a dry dreary man walking. For that they will go for an Irfaan film when they want to.

5. He should stay with times. He is no more young and fictitious love stories have no place for him. He needs to shift to mega autobiographies or big canvas true stories. That's what Leonardo's of the world do.

Also when he focuses on scripts, for the sake of the script he shouldn't fear sharing screen with others. Three Idiots, RDB, ZNMD are super examples of big stars sharing screen with others and yet coming out with flying colours. Nothing works more than male bonding on screens. When is the last time he had that in a film. Man to man. Not man to side kick.

The idea is not to do Billu and Fan and fail. The idea is to do a ZNMD and come out with flying colours.

The idea is also to do a TZP or Secret Superstar or Dangal and make it massive. Where the story isn't about him at all. And yet he steals it all away. He has to trust himself and without insecurities pick up scripts for the content of his role and power of the script instead of wanting to be the absolute centre of everything.

6. Of course masala movies will come - that's Bollywood and showbusiness, and a must. But his appeal doesn't lie in loud dialogues or flexing muscles etc. His masala films need to have great dose of humor. That's his forte. He must select scripts with enough humor when he tries his hand with Farah Khan or Rohit Shetty type masala films. Dilwale and HNY both lacked enough humor.

7. He should not go and start doing work with every new director who makes a critically acclaimed film or two. Going to Amol Palekar, Imtiaz or Anand L Rai doesn't make sense. I mean I fear he might next go to the director of Stree and do a film with him. Noooooo. They are for different levels of stars. Imtiaz is comfortable with Ranbirs and Shahids. Anand L Rais with Kanganas and Rajkumar Raos. They can't handle SRK. They either get over awed by SRK and lose the plot or they can't do justice to the SRK level of glamour and canvas that is required. Look at the scene with Sridevi, Deepika, Alia, Rani and Kajol in Zero versus how Farah Khan treated the collection of stars in OSO. That was world beating class stunning. This was poor man's horror show. The most pathetic non glamorous use of such glamorous stars. What could have been one of the highest point of the film turned out to be the most deserted idiotic part of the film.

Again I insist he should go to Rajkumar Hirani. That's his level. People who won't care about him. Vidhu Vinod Chopra - guys who can show an attitude even to SRK.

8. He has to have a China market strategy. Necessarily. If he can cultivate a followership in China a lot of his box office revenues can come from there. That's the only way currently to look at 2000cr. The NRIs of USA and UK are going to take him only till 300cr global collections. That's less than what others are now doing in India alone.

9. SRK once told me in 2011 when I wanted to make a film with him- which he politely turned down- that if one needs to earn moneys in Bollywood even with him, the budget must not cross 15cr. I was stumped (I assumed he meant without his fees which as a producer I guess he doesn't take). But I love his sense of business. He is a successful businessman. He should focus on that. Great autobiographies or big canvas true stories can be made in 30cr budget (assuming costs have doubled with a ten percent inflation in the last 7 years). The focus should be on making the market believe that his films make money.

10. He told me in 2009 that I might be a good author but I must take marketing consulting from him when I launch my next book. I believe him. No one in the industry comes near SRK when it comes to the cocktail of marketing skills, communication skills and intelligence that he brings on table. But he needs to match a product to his high voltage branding and marketing. He promotes his films like no one can. Gives the best interviews. Does the best tie-ups. Brings so much passion and energy. But each time his film bombs post that his revenue potential from next marketing blitz gets hit. Now people wait for film reviews and then buy tickets instead of believing in his marketing blitz. So his marketing promises and product quality need to match very soon now - for his marketing power to stay alive.

11. Finally he should have a specialist script selection team headed by people who understand scripts really good and choose scripts that are very well written instead of bad losely packed scripts like Dear Zindagi or JHMS or Zero just on the basis of a director. His focus should be more on acting and marketing. That's what all good leaders do. They surround themselves with functional specialists better than themselves for various verticals.

I am waiting for SRK now to drop the sequel to Hindi Medium. Take a break.. and plan his next film on the basis of these 11 points.

201KArindam Chaudhuri and 201K others

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