Yeh kya hua, kaise hua, kab hua…that’s what SRK fans would like to sing after reading this…
Shah Rukh Khan’s box office situ is a very curious one! Many a times, we accuse the man of not experimenting much with his roles, and sticking to Raj-Rahul characters that made him the icon that he is today. But what we forget is that, he does experiment with his roles, but that doesn’t always result into box office successes.
Recently, Ram Gopal Varma gave rather insightful comment that SRK is like Kamal Haasan and Salman Khan is like Rajinikanth. And SRK will give away his fans to Salman Khan, like Kamal Haasan did to Rajinikanth, if he continues to do different roles. Though at any other time, we would have totally disagreed with him. Kamal Haasan was an actor who had confidence in his abilities, and loved to do performances where he went beyond what he expected. Rajinikanth, on the other hand, knew his limitations, and worked comfortably around that. I am a man for quality, and just because people like massy films, doesn’t mean we can always give them that every time. And if we need to give them massy stuff, why not something that is worth keeping in memory for long, something like Sholay or in Rajinikanth’s case Dalapathi? And RGV seem to have forgotten that we still value him because he gave us gems like Satya, Company, Kaun which were not at all massy…and the one time he went massy (RGV ki Aag), it nearly destroyed his Bollywood career.
But, after the average performance of FAN, I had to agree with RGV at some level. And it’s not SRK’s fault at all. It’s rather the audiences, who might prefer Chennai Express or Happy New Year, or the makers who decided to turn a relatable plot into unrecognisable mess in the second half.
An established actor giving a flop is not such a huge thing, however, giving a great performance in a film that doesn’t click with the public is far more painful.
Here are 7 times when Shah Rukh Khan gave terrific performances, but the box office failed him!
FAN
After a slate of very standard performances in the last performances, FAN gave SRK a much needed opportunity to diversify his acting range. He excelled as both Aryan Khanna, the superstar, and Gaurav, his super crazy fan. However, an average screenplay and a confusing direction let him down, which translated into a not so Jabra BO performance.
Swades
Blame it on Aamir Khan’s Lagaan. When Ashutosh Gowariker announced his next, this time with Shah Rukh Khan, everyone expected something epic like Lagaan. But Swades was much more intimate, much more grounded film than its Oscar nominated predecessor. That’s why the film didn’t receive as much love as it deserved when it released, despite SRK’s most natural performance. However, ever since then, it has achieved a cult status and is lauded as one of the best films of Bollywood.
Paheli
Paheli was unlike any film SRK did in his career post Y2K. A romantic fairytale with ghosts and magic, it was the stuff you would have loved to listen if it was narrated by your grandma. However, the public was averse to seeing King Khan in a moustache and a turban. So despite giving two brilliant performances as nerdy man and his far more suave lookalike ghost, Paheli flew under the radar.
Billu
Before FAN, SRK played a real-life imitation of himself in Priyadarshan’s Billu, which was a remake of the Malayalam hit Katha Parayumbol and was a take on the friendship of Lord krishna and his poor Brahmin friend, Sudama. The film was very light, as any Priyadarshan film would be. However, the overzealous promotions failed to inform public that Irrfan Khan was the main lead in the film, while SRK just had an extended guest appearance, which worked against the film. This was sad, since it was one of the best films on friendship this side of Y2K, and King Khan’s speech in the end was knocking on your tear-glands!
Watch it here…
Dil Se…
It had AR Rahman at his musical best…it had Chaiyya Chaiyya, one of the most iconic song with some very inventive choreography…it had Mani Ratnam finally making his Bollywood debut, after the successes of his dubbed ventures Roja and Bombay. However, despite then debutante Preity Zinta’s cute dimples, the offbeat love story failed to enrapture the audiences, even though it had a huge opening. Shah Rukh Khan was at his natural best, and his romantic side was at its most intense, but the bleak proceedings failed to do justice to his skills.
Hey Ram!
Kamal Haasan may be the hero of the film, while Shah Rukh Khan was just a supporting player, a cameo at best (with 2 scenes and a song). But the film was promoted in Mumbai and northern territories with SRK’s face pasted over all posters. This kind of deceitful play-off, along with the grim and sometimes stomach-churning narrative (remember Rani Mukerji’s gang rape scene anyone? Shudder!) caused the film to underperform at the box office! However, no one can blame SRK, as he was one of the few redeeming factors of the film, and his death scene is very impactful!
Anjaam
There is a line in the Hollywood click, Tropic Thunder, uttered by Robert Downey Jr., ‘Never go FULL RETARD!’ Similarly, for SRK, we should say ‘NEVER GO FULL NEGATIVE’! Before Anjaam, his previous bad boy turns in Baazigar and Darr were not completely black, but just various shades of grey. However in Anjaam, he went into full villain mode, starting off as a stalker to Madhuri’s character, to later killing her husband gruesomely, to getting the wife implicated in the crime. Perhaps he went a bit too far, since the film performed averagely at the box office, though he won the Filmfare Best Actor in a Negative role award, something he missed in Darr.