There have been flops and disasters in the past and there would be flops and disasters in months to come as well. However, the failure of Jab Harry Met Sejal has been more disheartening than anything else in the past. Reason being that one just could not foresee anything starring Shah Rukh Khan in the lead to see such a rapid downfall. He is one superstar who has built the kind of credibility over last 25 odd years that invariably there has been universal content on display film after film. It isn’t as if each of his films has been super awesome or wildly entertaining – however, he hasn’t made anything which is wildly disliked.
That streak has been broken though by Jab Harry Met Sejal which has just not found an audience for itself. Period. The film didn’t take a mega opening, couldn’t find any traction over the weekend, fell even on a partial holiday [Rakhi] and then had a super crash during rest of the weekdays. One just hasn’t seen this kind of a response for a superstar flick in a really-really long time and what is all the more disappointing is that this has happened when the industry is going through its worst phase at the Box Office.
Box Office: Jab Harry Met Sejal is the biggest commercial disappointment of 2017
A Shah Rukh Khan film warrants and deserves a lot better; it definitely cannot live to see a day when the first-week collections are a mere 60 crore*. However, that has unfortunately happened and now the lifetime could well be in the vicinity of 70 crores and that’s about it. One just hopes and believes that this is just an aberration and Shah Rukh Khan returns with a Blockbuster next year when he unveils his film with Aanand L. Rai.
