Shah Rukh Khan is one of the biggest superstars of India, who not only has a huge fan base in the country, but across the globe. However, the actor's movies have not been doing well at the box office lately.
Although Shah Rukh's films still take huge opening at the box office, none of the recent movies could create the desired impact at the commercial circuits. In fact, most of his recent films ended up being flop at the box office.
His last two films – Jab Harry Met Sejal and Zero were highly anticipated movies as those had strong star cast and were helmed by popular directors. But both the movies failed to impress the audience, and hence, flopped at the box office.
Trade analyst, Sumit Kadel in a video put forward a number of reasons that according to him, are responsible for Shah Rukh's movies going flop at the box office.
First, Shah Rukh has been doing high budget experimental movies like Fan and Zero. He feels that such experimental films die at the box office after making a limited earning of around Rs 80 to 100 crore. Sumit said that as SRK has invested too much money on such films, these ended up being flop despite making decent collection. He stated that Fan had a budget of around Rs 90 crore, and Zero was made on Rs 150 crore.
Secondly, Sumit feels that the audience is now tired of seeing Shah Rukh in romantic roles. Zero was expected to present him in a different light, but he was again seen romancing Anushka Sharma's character in the film. He feels the audience does not want to see him in the same old romantic avatar anymore.
Thirdly, the trade expert said that wrong kind of directors are being given the responsibility to direct wrong kind of films. He said that most of Shah Rukh recent movies have been directed by people, who are not known for making such films. They have been taken out of their comfort zone in a bid to direct the superstar's films. Sumit said that light-comedy directors like Maneesh Sharma was given a complex film like Fan, Aanand L Rai was given Zero, which was opposite to his usual genre.
The trade analyst then spoke about the release dates of the King Khan's films. SRK's movies are not being released on good dates, and are often clashing with other big movies, he said.
Sumit further said that the audience's faith in Shah Rukh's movies has come down after repeated flops. His films witness massive occupancy because of his huge fan base, but the collection subsides after the weekend as the word of mouth remains bad.
Talking about the corrective measures the superstar should take, Sumit said that he should start choosing more commercial and universally appealing movies. And even if SRK wants to do experimental films, he should restrict the cost of production to around Rs 40 crore.
Sumit also said that it is high time that Shah Rukh works with big film-makers like Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Rajkumar Hirani and Karan Johar.