Life is all about uncertainty and no one can predict the future. What might be going right today has literally no guarantee that it will work tomorrow. At the end of the day, ‘peace’ is all about accepting today, releasing yesterday and giving up the need to control tomorrow. So, it’s important to not let success get into your head and remain grounded. Over the due course of time, we have seen many stars from the world of showbiz take whimsical career decisions by means of which they ended up jeopardizing their own success quotient. From being arrogant with media and fans to perhaps finding oneself ‘invincible’ after hitting a few big numbers at the box office, we have seen so many reasons which eventually led to the downfall of stars in terms of box office value.
But hey, imagine you as a star doing nothing among these things and still suddenly feeling like hitting almost rock bottom after a spree of success? Be its efforts and dedication towards work or sincerity and a nice choice of scripts, nothing has really changed. In fact, keeping past glory in mind, everything has been enhanced to ensure more success comes. So, if everything is only being done for the better, what has really ‘changed’ that has brought a humongous difference in results? Well, it’s the change in the consumption pattern of the audience and the Covid-19 factor that’s the biggest ‘red flag’ in this matter. It took just one pandemic and changing habits of the audience to literally change the entire equation. The stars of yesterday who could earlier boast of big numbers while doing content-driven films are suddenly finding themselves in a fix with back-to-back failures at the box office. So, here’s taking a quick look at some of these stars who had the bear the worst brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ayushmann Khurrana: Perhaps the one name who had to bear the brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic the most in terms of box office collections is none other than Ayushmann Khurrana. In the pre-pandemic era, he was enjoying a spree of hits one after the other. It almost felt like anything he touched seemed to turn into gold for him and how. Movies like Badhaai Ho, Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, Andhadhun and Dream Girl were all blockbusters and one thing that played a key role in that was that the content was very good in all of them. However, after the Covid-19 pandemic, his movies have failed to garner humongous crowds. His last flick ‘An Action Hero’ too was a forgettable disaster at the box office.
Ranbir Kapoor: If there’s one actor who’s always focused on reinventing himself come whatever challenges and has always focused on quality ahead of quantity in the last decade or so, it is non other than Ranbir Kapoor. Just like some of the other stars, Ranbir too had a dream run in movies and his biggest career blockbuster came in 2018 with ‘Sanju’. While he decided to take a break in 2019, his next movie got delayed all the way more since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world in 2020. Ever since then, his movie ‘Shamshera’ was released in cinemas in 2022 alongside Brahmastra. While Brahmastra still managed to do decent numbers, he couldn’t really make the same happen with ‘Shamshera’ despite a supremely amazing star cast. Well, we hope that this ‘chiraag’ of the Kapoor family gets it right in his next spree of movies.
Aamir Khan: Shocked and surprised to see this name in the list of ‘flops’? Well, we are too as we write this article. He’s been branded as ‘Mr. Perfectionist’ for a reason. For the longest time, there was blind trust among the audience and marketers that if it is an Aamir Khan film, it simply can’t go wrong at the box office. However, Laal Singh Chaddha completely changed the dynamics for Aamir Khan. While a lot of people found it worthy of a lot of critical acclaim, many felt that had the movie been released as per initial plans (Pre Covid), things might have been better. Laal Singh Chaddha was Aamir Khan’s poorest-performing movie in the last decade. Well, this is in itself enough to suggest what a ‘bummer’ of the year 2022 has been for Bollywood.
Akshay Kumar: Usually, Akshay Kumar’s name features in the list of ‘multiple hits’ in the same calendar year. Well, among all the A-lister actors, he’s perhaps the only one who on average releases 3-4 films in a single year. While everything has been amazing for him in the past, things turned haywire in the post-Covid era for him so far. 2022 was perhaps one of his worst years and how. Be it Raksha Bandhan or Bachchhan Paandey, Samrat Prithviraj or Ram Setu, everything tanked at the box office and did number below average. Well, here’s hoping Khiladi Kumar gets it right very soon since his loyal legion of fans are awaiting the same for a long time.
John Abraham: Another A-lister superstar who’s unfortunately had to bear the brunt of poor footfalls during the post-Covid-19 pandemic era is John Abraham. He’s that one actor who’s established his niche for doing good content-driven cinema with a tinge of action. However, 2022 wasn’t the best year for him either. Both his movies Attack: Part 1 and Ek Villain Returns did terrible and forgettable numbers at the box office. Well, here’s hoping he rises like a phoenix from the ashes and does well in the year coming next.
Shahid Kapoor: Our very own OG ‘chocolate boy’ of Hindi cinema aka Shahid Kapoor was on a roll and how. He just had the biggest hit of his career in 2019 with ‘Kabir Singh’ and things looked extremely promising for him thereafter. However, destiny had other plans. A lot of movies had to reshuffle dates due to the unpredictable nature of Covid-19 variants and lockdown and it certainly messed up a lot of things. His movie Jersey underperformed terribly and it left all of us stunned for real. Well, with an interesting line-up going forward, here’s hoping he roars back faster, better and harder.
Prabhas: When Prabhas lifted the auspicious humongous ‘Shiv Linga’ all by himself in the movie ‘Bahubali’, a lot of fans and critics thought that his stardom perhaps hit that stage where he can literally and effortlessly carry the ‘weight’ of any film all by himself in his own shoulders. Well, great expectations sometimes lead to not-so-nice situations. Radhe Shyam had great expectations from the audience but it failed to do the desired numbers. Add to that, the motion picture of Adipurush received so much trolling that the makers had to literally push the release date further for next year. Well, here’s hoping he gets better and has a prolific year going forward in 2023.
Ranveer Singh: Last but certainly not least, we have the ‘electrifying’ superstar Ranveer Singh who has to ensure his audience loves his ‘seeti maar’, ‘current laga’ performance in ‘Cirkus’. It’s been a difficult year for even someone like Ranveer Singh. Be it 83 or Jayeshbhai Jordaar, everything that he’s off-late been a part of the post-Covid-19 era has flopped big time. If we have to talk about his last ‘clean hit’, that was ‘Gully Boy’ way back in 2019 February. It’s never about how you start and always about how you finish. Well, that’s why he would hope that his year atleast ends on a high with ‘Cirkus’. Well, all we can hope is that the movie ends up being a nice ‘comedy’ and not a ‘comedy of errors’.
Yes, it’s true that the changing preferences of the audience have made life tougher for some of our entertainment industry leaders. Well, if you see actors like Akshay Kumar and Aamir Khan struggling to reach the break-even point despite having entertained the masses for more than 30 years, you clearly know that a lot of work needs to be done in terms of ‘content strategy’, ‘business modules’ and ‘marketing campaigns’. Well, here’s hoping the message reaches out loud and clear to the people who matter. At the end of the day, it’s an ecosystem. We all grow ‘together’ and also ‘fail’ together. Well, here’s hoping 2023 is all about being a journey upwards.