It’s just a matter of three days and Bollywood will witness yet another major Box Office clash with Raees and Kaabil releasing on 25th January. The two films, which feature two big stars of the industry, are eyeing for the best at the Box Office. Both Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan have been showing enough confidence in their work. In fact, makers from both the sides have maintained that there’s enough audience for both the films and therefore, both Raees and Kaabil can do well. In his recent statement to a leading daily, producer Rakesh Roshan talked about how films with rich content work better at the Box Office. He said:
The requirement of the audience is changing with every film. What doesn’t change is the emotional quotient of films, whether it’s Bollywood or Hollywood. Dangal, Sultan, Pink, Neerja and MS Dhoni: The Untold Story have strong emotional content. If your subject is wafer-thin and lacks emotion, your film will not have a great shelf-life. And I’m not talking box-office here. A film that has an emotional impact lasts longer in public memory.
And this precisely could be the reason why Kaabil may enjoy an upper hand than Raees at the Box Office. The Hrithik Roshan and Yami Gautam starrer is a story of a visually impaired man who sets on a revenge journey after losing his love. There’s a love story in its heart studded with beautiful romantic tracks. Kaabil is high on emotional value as compared to Raees, which seems like a rusty-colourful narrative of the life-story of a Gujarati don. While Kaabil appears to be focussing on the love story of two visually impaired people, Raees focusses more on the journey of a man from being a bootlegger to a don.
Does this mean that Kaabil being more emotionally packeted than Raees will help it in its Box Office run?
Indian audience has a bigger acceptance space for the films which play on the emotional value. While the action-oriented films do have a greater attraction factor, the films that have worked in the past in terms of Box Office success are the ones which could drive audience on the basis of emotions shown in it. Here’s the list of top 10 Bollywood Grossers:
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- PK
- honor
- Bajrangi Bhaijaan
- Dhoom 3
- Sultan
- PRDP
- Chennai Express
- 3 Idiots
- Dilwale
- Bajiro Mastani
Apart from the fact that these films featured big stars in it, the good content—rich in emotions—was the other big reason for these films to do well in India. Except Dhoom 3, which can be deemed as an action-oriented film, the rest of the films in the list enjoyed success due to their distinct plots talking of human emotions. Rich content doesn’t only mean a film with an emotional story but a film which has a storyline with a universal appeal. If we compare the storyline of Raees and Kaabil, a plot which has the love story of a blind couple in focus has a wider appeal than the story of a gangster from the Indian state of Gujarat.
Indian audiences feel better connected with the films which talk about real things like relationships, values, and emotions. Even when there’s an action in a film, the audience has always preferred an action with a cause over the films which solely sell on larger-than-life action sequences. So will Kaabil be able to register a win at the Box Office with its emotionally heavy content or will it be the SRK magic reigning all over? The reality will be revealed post-Friday when the audience’s word-of-mouth will speak more than the movie reviews and the over-hyped buzz around both the films.
