Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Pathaan’ Crosses $123 Million In A Month

His film completed a month at the cinema halls across the globe and Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan has managed a worldwide score of $123.38 million (all languages). Directed by Siddharth Anand, the film features John Abraham, Dimple Kapadia, Deepika Padukone, and Ashutosh Rana, apart from Khan.

Producers of the film – Yash Raj Films – claimed earlier this week that Pathaan is now the highest-grossing “Hindi film in its initial run”. The film released ahead of a national holiday in India on January 25 and emerged as the biggest Bollywood opener ever with a collection of $6.8 million in India alone on the first day, and a worldwide opening of $13 million. The film released in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages, across 5,500 in India and 2500 screens outside India.

Pathaan remains way behind Aamir Khan’s Dangal that continues to hold the top spot for the highest-grossing Indian film with an estimated earnings of $250 million worldwide. Based on a real-life Indian wrestler (Mahavir Singh Phogat) and his struggle to get his daughters (Geeta Phogat and Babita Phogat) find a space in the field of wrestling, the film earned over $84.5 million its initial run. The collections further rose after the theatrical release in China.

Pathaan is the story of the titular character (essayed by Khan) who is a secret servcie agent and tackles a major threat to the country that emerges in the form of a terrorist who is driven by money alone (Abraham). Padukone essays the role of one of her alies and a secret agent for Pakistan while Kapadia plays the role of Khan’s boss in the film.

Pathaan is the fourth movie in YRF’s “spy universe”. It all began with Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif starrer Ek Tha Tiger which featured both the stars as special agents from India and Pakistan repectively. They reprised their roles in Tiger Zinda Hai and the third film in the universe was Hrithik Roshan’s War.

Two factors may have played a major role in the kind of unprecedented response that Khan’s film received over the past one month, all over the world. One of these is the fact that the film marked his return to the silver screen after almost five years – he was last seen in Anand L Rai’s Zero in 2018. The film that featured Kaif and Anushka Sharma proved to be a box office dud.

The second factor could be the a result of the unique and rare way of marketing and promotions for that the producers used for Pathaan. Prior to the film’s release, there was very limited, exposure – the interviews (pre-release interviews, without screenings of the film are common in India) were very few and rare. There was little promotional material available online – none of the usual ‘making of’ and ‘behind the scene’ videos came out before the release. These were shared only after the film’s release. Even Khan started conducting ‘Ask Me Anything’ sessions online and interacted with his fans and the audiences after the film’s release.

Kartik Aaryan’s Shehzada was supposed to release on February 10, but the producers decided to shift the theatrical to February 17 in order to avoid getting less footfalls amid the craze and euphoria around Pathaan. However, the film failed to gain much from the shift and had a dismal show at the ticket windows.