THE BAAZ IGAR

After lacklustre years, the overwhelming success of Pathaan and Jawan this year has given hope to other Bollywood movies waiting in the aisles of benefitting from a rub-off effect of King Khan's Midas touch

- Vinita Bhatia

BEHIND BOLLYWOOD'S RESURRECTION

SHAH RUKH KHAN

A s Pathaan opened to packed theatres, the scene where Salman Khan makes a surprise cameo appearance was the one that got the maximum claps, whistles and cheers in theatres. Shah Rukh Khan, playing a RAW agent, asks Salman, "Main bhi kabhi kabhi sochta hoon, 30 saal ho gaye hai. Ab humein chhod dena chahiye. (Sometimes I feel it has been 30 years, now we should retire')." "Par humari jagah lega kaun? ('But who will take our place?")," replies Salman, to which they sagely conclude, "Humein hi karna padega. Baccho pe nahi chhod sakte ('We will have to do it. We cannot leave it on these kids")." While Salman's other outings before Tiger 3 were duds at the box office, Pathaan's dialogue succinctly sums up why King Khan makes it to our list of changemakers.

The galaxy of Bollywood stars could not do what this 50-something star managed to: draw cine-goers back to the theatre. And, Bollywood cannot thank him enough.

While Pathaan is as masala-driven as any Bollywood potboiler can be, Jawan stands out with its strong anti-establishment storyline. It is a deeply political film packaged inside an over-the-top song-and-dance and action veneer. It is a storyline that Bollywood has safely stayed away from since 2014.

It took the King to lead the charge.

Bollywood's Second

Coming Ormax Media's Sizing The Cinema: 2023 report states that India's once-vibrant film industry lost around 2.4 crore audience to the pandemic when theatres were mostly closed throughout 2020 and parts of 2021. Around 12.2 crore people watched at least one film in a theatre between January and December 2022, while forthe same period in 2019, the figure stood at 14.6 crore.