Amitabh Bachchan is Super Star, or the living legend or Star of the millennium or not sure whatever names given to him. But, that does not translate to the box office register. People don’t go and watch his movies. They like him; there is no doubt about it. His game show KBC is a hit, his appearances on other TV reality shows are liked by people, his advertisements are hit, but his movies are not.
This is interesting to note, that he still command a large fan followings, and ranked #3 in Times of India Celebrity Index in January 2015. He has always been in Top 10, and was #1 in April 2014.
He has 13.6 million followers on Twitter, 19.8 million followers on Facebook, and his blog is also read by millions of people regularly, including media giants. Anything he says, post or share becomes news, as media recognize that people do like to read or see him in news.
Every Sunday there are thousands of people stand in front of his house to get a glimpse of him. He is considered as face of Bollywood across international community. He is hot favorite for any social endorsement not just by Indian Government agencies, but for international institutions as well. He is in the list of attendees for all foreign leaders visiting and hosting dinner in India. I can go on, but I think you get the picture. He is the most influential and popular person in Bollywood today, internationally and locally.
But, and there is this “but” which prompted me to write this, as I can see all the above, and I can see that even if he was #1 Celebrity as per Times Celebrity Ranking in April 2014, his movie “Bhootnath Returns” in the same month did not translate the same at Box Office. This movie is considered as below average from box office prospective, even when everyone praise the movie and story, direction, active wise it was all thumbs up, both from critics as well as public opinion. Now, consider the facts around this movie. It was a sequel to already super hit movie, lots of buzz in media as well as general public around the release; the songs were catchy and popular before the release, making rounds in top charts. Amitabh was coming back in movie almost after a year. It was oriented towards kids, and the timing of release was perfect for kids after their exams. The movie opened with 93% collection on its first day. Critics praised the movie, public who saw it, said all good opinion about it, and there was no other big movie released along with this. But the collection dropped from second day itself, and hit bottom after a week when “2 States” released.
What was it? The movie should have become a top grosser of the year, with 100-200 crores of collection. But it did not do that. At the end, it was tagged at less than 40 Crores only. The movie is profitable for its producers, because not just the box office collection, they earn money from other sources like music rights, video rights, and satellite rights as well. In fact, the satellite rights were sold at 21 Crores for this movie. But that does not translate to the selling ability of Amitabh Bachchan at Box Office.
Then we see a TV series “Yudh” featuring him in lead role, and again was a fresh, dark, different in a good way type of series. This had not just Amitabh Bachchan, but some other good names from industry associated with it, like Anurag Kashyap, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Zakir Hussain, Sarika and Kay Kay Menon. But it failed to get proper TRP ratings on TV. And this we are talking about the TV debut of Amitabh Bachchan as actor. He has done and doing reality game show KBC, which still enjoys large viewership, but never before he acted in any TV Series. Here again, the facts are clear, the series was good, storyline, direction, acting, everything was in favor of the series, still it did not work.
The recent movie, “Shamitabh” released, and flopped at Box Office. This again has everything in favor of movie, the release timing, actors, direction, story, everything. But the movie did not work. Public response to ticket window was so bad, that had it not been an Amitabh Bachchan movie, people may not have remembered that its released already.
What is the reason we don’t want to watch Amitabh Bachchan playing a character? What is the reason we like him so much, we adore him, but still don’t want him playing anyone else than Amitabh Bachchan? Why is that we can read about him in newspaper and magazines, we follow his posts on blog, twitter and Facebook, we love his advertisements, we love to stand in front of his house every Sunday for a glimpse of him, we love him in music videos like the recent “Birju” song, but we don’t want to go out and watch his movies.
Has Amitabh Bachchan reached to a position where he is now considered obsolete for the newer generation? Do we love him only for his yesteryear’s movies, and he is misfit for the newer genre of movies? Do we only wants to see him as Amitabh Bachchan, the Super Star of 20th century? I do not have answer to these questions, and as a fan of Amitabh Bachchan, I am trying hard to find answers to these.
Maybe this is related to over exposer of Amitabh Bachchan to his fans. Consider this, he is an icon, Super Star, Legend, and fan loves him. But also, he is everywhere. He is endorsing lots of products, so you see him during commercial breaks on TV. He is doing game show on TV, so you see him every weeknight during the show. He is writing Blogs every day, so you get to read him daily, along with his pictures and videos sometimes. You follow him on twitter, so knows where he is going and what he is doing in real time. You get his post on Facebook, so you know what is going on in his world. He is appearing in other shows as guest, so we see him there on TV. All these are available to us, free of cost, and without any effort from our side. There is so much Amitabh Bachchan, that a new movie of him does not excite us that much. It’s one more show or post of Amitabh Bachchan, which I can choose to watch at my own time. I don’t have to make time to go and buy ticket; I will watch it later, maybe on TV or so. Or I can give it a miss, like any other Amitabh stuff. I can skip his Blogs or Twitter or Facebook posts for few days, and still come back to read latest. So, I think the wow factor of watching my favorite star on big screen is gone. We are so used to see him everywhere; the new movie is just another such event, which does not excite us enough to go out for it.
Or maybe it’s the fact that we have seen everything and nothing new is coming from his side. If we talk about his acting, there is no doubt that he is one of the finest actors of all time. He delivers, but with so much baggage of past movies and his characters, nothing new is coming to audience. If you recall, “Paa” was a super hit movie, because it has something unique, a fresh new never before attempted role of Amitabh Bachchan. “Bbuddah Hoga Terra Baap” was not a big hit, just because it gave us same old Amitabh we have been watching for years in movies, and nothing new. He is just an actor, and cannot create new roles for him. He has to do what’s been offered to him. Although all big director wants to work with him, but they don’t have roles which can give audience something new, something never before shown, of Amitabh Bachchan. So, is it that we are now not ready to watch a repeat of same old roles and characters by Amitabh Bachchan, and wants something new in order to take us back to theaters?
Whatever the reason is, I think Amitabh Bachchan has to relook at his strategy, and plan the next move carefully. Amitabh Bachchan still rules in the heart of millions and millions of Indian worldwide, so this is not the time for him to take a break from movies. But a little break from over exposer may not hurt that much. And for his fans like me and others, we have to make sure that we go and watch his movies, encourage others to do so as well. This will ensure that there will be more and more of his movies in coming days. We just don’t want Amitabh Bachchan to retire, we want him to keep working, and keep giving us more and more movies.
Mr. Bachchan, we love you, and we want you to keep working. So, keep working in movies, and keep entertaining us.
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