For Shah Rukh Khan, 2017 was largely uneventful with two of his big releases, Raees and Jab Harry Met Sejal, tanking at the box office. While the domestic collection of Raees was decent, making over Rs 150 crore, Jab Harry Met Sejal earned a meagre Rs 64.33 crore. Shah Rukh Khan, who has earlier compensated distributors for losses during Asoka (2001), Paheli (2005) and Dilwale (2015), apparently offered to compensate the distributors of Jab Harry Met Sejal as well.
Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma in Jab Harry Met Sejal
As per certain media reports, Shah Rukh Khan has come to the rescue of the film’s distributors and has decided to refund 15 per cent of the losses to the company, NH Studioz, and 30 per cent to a few others.
From getting terrible reviews to drawing flak from viewers, the movie clearly failed to create the magic that director Imtiaz Ali, in general, and Shah Rukh Khan, in particular, are known for.
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Shah Rukh is one of the few stars, who is known for his unparalleled wit, intelligence and humour and now will also be hailed for standing with his distributors even in time of loss. As much as people love him, the star has been targeted on different occasions with people being unreasonable and, sometimes, attacking his religion or personal life. However, he has set an example by never taking it all lying down and in fact, countered it with humour rather than a heated argument.
Here’s an example:
Four years ago, my lovely wife Gauri and me decided to have a third child. It was claimed on the net that he (AbRam) was the love child of the first child who was 15 years old. Apparently, he had sown his wild oats with a girl while driving a car in Romania. And yeah, there was a fake video to go with it.”
During his TED Talk, the depth with which the actor spoke about love, work and humanity was astounding.
In 2015, talking about his movie Dilwale, Shah Rukh Khan said, “To be honest, it has perhaps not done as well in India as I would like it to do.” He refunded about 50 per cent of the losses incurred by the distributors. In 2001, when Asoka failed to make an impact at the Box Office, King Khan sold his next big release Chalte Chalte (2003) at a lower price to those distributors who had suffered losses during Asoka. Amol Palekar’s directorial Paheli (2005) met with the same fate as Asoka, and SRK sold Om Shanti Om’s rights at a lower cost to make up for the distributors’ previous loss.
Taking pointers from Shah Rukh, Salman Khan recently compensated distributors by paying Rs 55 crore, after Tubelight‘s failure to make waves at the box office. This incident proves that as far as Shah Rukh Khan is concerned, it doesn’t matter if his movies do well at the big screen or not, the star knows how to win hearts.
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