With baadshah back as Pathaan, here is what drives Brand Shah Rukh: Love

If the last few years dented his persona, Pathaan has shown it was just a fleeting phase

On January 25, Hindi cinema witnessed something that can only be described as stupefying. Pathaan, starring Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, John Abraham, and Dimple Kapadia, opened to Rs 57 crore, the highest-ever opening in Hindi cinema.
 
The film has since gone on to collect Rs 543 crore at the global box office, and the cash registers are still ringing.
 
All of it points to one thing: The baadshah of Bollywood is well and truly back. Five years after his last appearance on the big screen, this was a fitting welcome for the superstar.
 

It has been a rough few years for the actor. The films that came before Pathaan tanked at the box office. Zero, his last release in 2018, could only rake in Rs 88 crore. Since then, the star has only been visible in a few cameos.

 
In the Kroll celebrity valuation report of 2021, Khan didn’t even feature in the top ten. With a brand value of $46.3 billion, he was at number 12, having slipped eight places from the year before.
 
The business of Bollywood aside, the star was also embroiled in controversy when his elder son Aryan was arrested on October 3, 2021 by the Narcotics Control Bureau on charges of possessing drugs. He was kept in custody for 26 days.
 
Brand SRK took a beating. Byju’s, for instance, promptly dropped ads featuring him.
 
“SRK has had very high scores on ‘Identity with’ in the Indian Institute of Human Brand’s (IIHB) TIARA research (which shows how celebrities are perceived). But this had started to wane somewhat over the past few years, primarily due to a bad selection of movies,” says Sandeep Goyal, media entrepreneur and leader, IIHB, managing director, Rediffusion. “He has been the quintessential romantic hero but he meandered somewhat.”

 
The NCB incident left the superstar vulnerable.
 
“But Shah Rukh was the image of dignity in the midst of it all. He took it on the chin and patiently waited for justice to be delivered,” says ad guru Prahlad Kakkar.
 
Aryan Khan was given a clean chit in May 2022. And Brand Shah Rukh was back – perhaps bigger, stronger.
 
If he chose to tide over the storm silently, for his film, he reached out to his fans one-on-one. The promotions for his latest release were limited to several 10-15-minute-long AMAs (Ask me Anything) on Twitter.

 
There were no big trailer launch events, no collaborations with influencers or YouTubers, no press interviews in India, and no appearances on TV shows — a promotion practice that all stars have come to believe in.
 
There are many factors that contributed to making Pathaan a bonafide box office hit.
 
There was publicity around the film from Day One. A continuous spate of controversies surrounding the film's making and its release only led to increased interest. The boycott calls fell flat.
 
Says Kakkar, “How long can people be told what they can and cannot do? The controversies instead played in the film’s favour.”

 
Agrees Samit Sinha, founder, Alchemist Brand Consulting. “There was daily publicity for the film. It was just not marketed the conventional way.”
 
But mostly it was an outpouring of love for the star that drove people to the cinemas.
 
“The (Aryan Khan) controversy made King Khan almost look like a victim,” says Goyal. “I think that roused sympathy for him and got the masses to the box office. No amount of social media hype or negativity can neutralise genuine affection for a star.”
 
Sinha agrees: “It is almost a sign of solidarity for the star, someone people love so much, who they felt was being vicitimised and targeted till not so long ago.”

 
There is some degree of identification with the star that makes him a fairly strong middle-class icon, Sinha elaborates. “For a particular gentry — semi-urban and urban audience — he is almost special, and has an appeal across genders.”
 
The phenomenon called SRK has been strong enough to merit a serious book. Case in point: Economist Shrayana Bhattacharya’s Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh.
 
For years, Khan has wooed women on screen not just with a soft sparkle in his eyes and with his arms outstretched, but by offering them companionship and support.
 
“Salman protects women, Amir teaches us, Shah Rukh sees us,” Bhattacharya writes in her book.

 
Thanking fans in a press conference on Monday, Khan was at his charming best: “These four days (since the release of the film) have been the happiest… I have forgotten the last four years.”
 
Goyal sums it up: “Brand Shah Rukh obviously has high reservoirs of love and goodwill, which is showing in the groundswell for Pathaan.”
 
SRK, after all, is a brand built on love.