Shah Rukh Khan magic: Bollywood star 'refused to promote' Pathaan, broke box office records anyway

T he success of Shah Rukh Khan’s (SRK) blockbuster comeback movie, ‘Pathaan’, which created records of sorts by becoming the highest-grosser...

The success of Shah Rukh Khan’s (SRK) blockbuster comeback movie, ‘Pathaan’, which created records of sorts by becoming the highest-grosser for the star on its opening day, has left trade experts wondering how the Bollwyood superstar managed to achieve the feat.

According to reports, the action-thriller raked in more than Rs500 million in India and also entered the Rs1 billion club on Day 1 at the global box office.

As per trade analyst Taran Adarsh, ‘Pathaan' made over Rs550 million on the first day of its release.

The figures beat the opening day collection of Hrithik Roshan's War (Rs510 million) and Yash's KGF: 2 Hindi (Rs530 million).

However, one question has stumped box-office pundits – how did SRK manage to achieve the impossible without even attempting to promote the film? Selling a movie should come very easy for the media-savvy star who is known for his charm, right? In the past, he has tirelessly promoted his project and fans would have expected him to do the same for 'Pathaan'. But it remains to be seen why he refrained from doing so.

A Zoom report made a mention of SRK and the filmmakers employing a ‘different strategy’ this time. But what was the plan? Here’s a look at what the possible reasons could be.

According to a report, one of the strategies was for the actor to keep himself away from the media and made very few appearances ahead of the movie’s release to distance himself from the crowd and add to the 'suspense value'. He declined to appear on popular TV shows such as 'Bigg Boss', 'The Kapil Sharma Show' and other events. He also did not offer interviews with media outlets this time. The actor never fails to oblige the press when it comes to promoting his projects.

The producers implemented a new marketing approach which includes no media interviews, according to another report.

"He has had very limited exposure to people in these four years and the hunger to see him is at an all-time high," Siddharth Anand, director of 'Pathaan' told Indian Express.

"We are all humbled to be receiving the unanimous love that we are getting for Pathaan so far and we can’t thank people enough," he further stated.

The could also be other reasons – the debacle of his last movie ‘Zero’ in 2018, or perhaps, it could be some controversies surrounding his personal life? We cannot pinpoint but filmmakers have surely experimented with novel marketing strategy, and it seems to have worked in their favour.

The opening record of 'Pathaan' has also overshadowed blockbuster movies from south India like 'KGF Chapter 2’

'Pathaan' also stars Deepika Padukone and John Abraham, and Salman Khan in a surprise cameo appearance as Tiger.