Kartik Aaryan’s Shehzada opens low at box office: Can Bollywood’s crown prince strike another home run?

“Audiences and the industry can see the conviction with which I am working. They can see it. Even with a Shehzada they are seeing me for the first time in an action avatar. There is that conviction, self-confidence or belief… You need a different level of conviction to do all that,” Kartik had told indianexpress.com last year about dealing with the pressure to deliver with Shehzada.

Naturally, all eyes are now on the film and Kartik, to see if he can continue the momentum and go beyond his own benchmark at the box office. According to Girish Johar, producer and film business expert, Kartik Aaryan has firmly placed himself as a “rising star” and would now aim to “consolidate” his position.

“He has a huge growing fan base and people are enjoying his presentations– whatever he is trying to come up with the movies. The awareness levels for Shehzada are quite good, they’re also going all out and touring in different cities and trying to gather the crowd. The trailer has garnered a good response, even the songs and he is pretty much active on social media as well,” Johar told indianexpress.com.

While Kartik has left no stone unturned to promote the film–multi city tours, last minute recreation of a chartbuster Salman Khan track or projecting the trailer on Dubai’s Burj Khalifa–how much of it is actually translating to ticket sales? According to two trackers indianexpress.com spoke to, the film is fairing poorly. Till Thursday noon, Shehzada had sold merely 11,400 tickets at national chains.

 

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“The advance booking numbers are just disappointing. It is too low even for a Kartik Aaryan film, trending lesser than the likes of underwhelming box office openers of last year like Bhediya. If the momentum stays like this, we are looking at an opening of somewhere between Rs 7-8 crore,” trade sources shared.

Bihar based exhibitor Vishek Chauhan also noted that Kartik’s promotional city tours have done little to help the film as “it has not led to ticket sales.” “The theatre going audience has evolved a lot, they already decide what they want to watch, any amount of cajoling won’t work in getting them to watch your film. Cinema is no longer an impulse product; it has become a high involvement product. So, the idea is to think like an audience, if you do that everything falls in place,” Chauhan told indianexpress.com.

Chauhan feels Shehzada is riding on “absolutely low” buzz, which has been “pretty much nonexistent.” What also seems to be a concern for Shehzada is the box office clash with the Marvel biggie, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Shehzada was earlier supposed to enjoy a solo release on February 10, but was pushed by a week due to the monstrous box office run of Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan.

“Cinepolis Patna probably has the best advances for most films in the country. Because it happens to be the only multiplex in Patna, it has enjoyed that a virtual monopoly over the last ten-twelve years. But until yesterday, they had sold about forty tickets in five days for Shehzada, and Antman on the other hand sold around five hundred tickets. Even at my place (in Purnia) the buzz and enquiry is much more for Antman than for Shehzada,” Vishek Chauhan said.

Johar also agrees that Shehzada will have a “strong competition” from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. “I was a little taken aback by them pushing Shehzada by one week as they didn’t have any competition and had a clear window, but they came right along with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. I really hope that decision turns positive,” Johar added.

Another factor that might be stopping the audience to go all out embracing Shehzada with open arms, at least in the advance ticket sales, could be the apprehension of seeing Kartik Aaryan bite into a role that’s larger than life.

 

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A source from the industry said, “Allu Arjun powered through Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo through his charm. It’s just him, his energy and his raw star power on display. You needed something like that with SheHzada. Not an actor who will become a superstar after the film, but an established superstar to headline the film. There is a difference and perhaps Kartik is yet to reach that stage.”

Vishek feels the problem with Shehzada as of now is that the film is falling into “no man’s land”. “In my opinion, Kartik still has a long way to become a star. He will have to do much more impressive work to be called a proper, bona fide star, who can deliver to the masses. He has a good draw in the youth, no doubt, because all his films, from Pyar Ka Punchnama to Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety were very youth oriented. So he has that good connection with the youth urban audience and because the word of mouth happened to be good these films zoned into the family audience.

“However, with Shehzada, Kartik is stepping into the mass zone, the zone which is successfully handled by someone like Varun Dhawan in the past where he did a Judwaa, Main Tera Hero and other massy films. Kartik has to work harder to build credibility among the masses and for the youth. Antman is coming, and Marvel is a very big brand, so Shehzada might have a tough time in the advance and opening day. Only positive word of mouth can help the Kartik Aaryan starrer,” he signed off.

The fans, however, are gung-ho about their favourite star. Sania Khan, an engineer from Mumbai spoke about her love for Kartik Aaryan and how she shares a special connection with him. Revealing that she hadn’t watched Pyar Ka Punchnama when it released, her first Kartik film was the sequel of the romcom. “That’s when I got to know about Kartik Aaryan and was blown away. This cute guy could act so well and his monologues in both the films were just amazing. I just fell in love with him,” she shared. She is happy about the fact that Kartik is from her college (DY Patil) and the same department.

Talking about the USP of Kartik, she added, “His efforts in each and every movie, his dance steps be it in Pati Patni Aur Woh or Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 and performance in Freddy, he has nailed every part. His hard work shows and he has never let us his fans down by any of his movies.”

Giving her thoughts on Shehzada, Sania said, “From what we have seen in the trailer, it looks like a complete blockbuster. It will definitely break all his previous records. The songs, the story, everything looks so interesting. I can bet it will once again show the world what Kartik is capable of.”

Shehzada is produced by Bhushan Kumar, Allu Arvind, Aman Gill and Aaryan. The film also stars Kriti Sanon, Manisha Koirala, Paresh Rawal, Ronit Roy, and Sachin Khedekar.