This article is written by Me... Bobby Sidhu! This is my username (bobbysinsid) that I am posting this article with. You can also follow me on Twitter at BobbyS_BO.
When any Aamir Khan film is about to release, it seems as if I always start by talking about his illustrious box office record, and for good reason. From 2008-2016, the man was churning out All Time Blockbuster after All Time Blockbuster.
Thugs of Hindostan was a disaster, but many (including me) felt that Laal Singh Chaddha will be Aamir’s return to giving a huge Blockbuster. In fact, I had probably tweeted a year or two ago that Laal Singh Chaddha would be the biggest grosser of the year and I felt that it would be the biggest grosser of all time, breaking the record of Dangal.
Sadly, all of that changed when the theatrical trailer of Laal Singh Chaddha released!
The Trailer That Sealed The Film’s Unfortunate Fate!
The trailer of Laal Singh Chaddha met with a DISASTROUS response from the public. Many noticed similarities with Salman’s Flop Tubelight, especially with the mentally-disabled main character. A lot of criticism has been thrown at Aamir for doing the exact same acting that he did as Samar in Dhoom 3 and as PK in PK.
Mostly importantly, the criticism has been directed at Aamir for trying to act like Tom Hanks of the original film that Laal Singh Chaddha is a remake of, Forrest Gump!
The Aamir Formula….That USED TO work!
Aamir used to have a formula that worked in the past: take a Hollywood film, give it a desi touch and Indianize the film, and make the film a huge Blockbuster:
Ghajini: Inspired by Momento
Dhoom 3: Inspired by Prestige
The thing with both of these films (Ghajini and Dhoom 3) was that they were huge action films. They both got record-breaking opening days, and from there, even mixed WOM from the public was enough to make the films HUGE Blockbusters, as we especially saw in the case of Dhoom 3.
The formula came to a screeching halt though with Thugs of Hindostan, which was inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean (even the titles of both films sound similar!) Sure, Thugs of Hindostan was a poor product, but by 2018, the impact of social media had grown a lot more compared to 5-10 years prior that. Whereas Ghajini and Dhoom 3 could escape criticism and comparison with the original Hollywood films, Thugs of Hindostan couldn’t in a new era where Indians are a lot more knowledgeable about Hollywood films, thanks to social media. Of course, Thugs of Hindostan was a poor film in terms of content, but the comparisons with Pirates of the Caribbean only made things worse for the film!
To make matters worse, the growth of OTT platforms in India now means that Indians readily have access to world cinema, including older Hollywood classics such as Forrest Gump that can be watched at home. Even if many Indians haven’t seen Forrest Gump, they surely have knowledge of the film and/or seen clips of the film thanks to social media and the internet!
This is where the problem begins for Laal Singh Chaddha. Many people are aware that this is just a remake of a Hollywood classic, and this criticism comes at a time where criticism for Bollywood is already at an all-time high due to lack of original content and dependence on remakes.
NO appeal for Classes, NO appeal for Masses!
Specifically, it would be the audience in class centres, big cities, metros, multiplex audience, that would have a huge problem with Laal Singh Chaddha being a remake of Forrest Gump, as these sections of the audience are most likely the ones to have seen and enjoyed Forrest Gump. Again, Aamir’s acting has been very poorly received in the trailer itself compared to Tom Hanks, and I can say with certainty that these sections of the audience will outright reject Laal Singh Chaddha with negative WOM.
All of that would still be fine if Laal Singh Chaddha atleast carried mass appeal. Unfortunately, Laal Singh Chaddha has no mass appeal to speak of either. Aamir is NOT carrying a larger-than-life appeal here in the way that he did for previous Blockbusters such as Ghajini, Dhoom 3, or even the younger wrestling version of himself in Dangal.
There are no hit songs to speak of either with Laal Singh Chaddha. Lack of hit music will be a huge, huge problem in mass centres. The narrative of the film, judging especially from the recent Tur Kalleyan song promo released, seems very slow-paced. In fact, it is shocking to see that the song promos are being released silently on YouTube without creating any buzz at all on social media. It’s almost as if Aamir has accepted defeat after the poor response to the theatrical trailer and he wants to lower expectations for the film so that the audience can come out of the theatre surprisingly happy after watching the film. It’s not going to work though, as the audience WOM (Word of Mouth) will be negative!
The action sequences in the film do not seem of the mass-appealing kind either. Finally, Aamir’s character of the mentally disabled man resembles Salman’s character in the Flop Tubelight, and SRK’s character in My Name is Khan, another film that carried no mass appeal.
In this new post-pandemic era where the audience prefers coming to the theatre for more larger-than-life, mass-appealing cinema, Laal Singh Chaddha offers NOTHING.
The film holds no appeal at all in India: neither for classes, neither for masses! That’s why I believe that the film will get extremely negative WOM (Word of Mouth) from the public after they watch the film.
With the type of sust, sleepy film that it appears to be, the audience would prefer to watch in their own lazy way as well: from the comfort of their homes on OTT. But even there, why watch it on OTT, when you have access to the original Forrest Gump instead!
The CURSE of the DREAM Project!
Also, we have seen in the past that an actor’s dream project almost ALWAYS fails. Consider these examples:
SRK, Ra One: the film generated the type of negativity rarely (if ever!) seen before for a Shah Rukh Khan starrer.
Salman Khan, Veer: Salman had a historic box office run from 2010-2019. Veer was the only Salman film the entire decade to not cross the 100 crore mark.
Saif Ali Khan, Agent Vinod: the film sank without a trace at the box office
Ketan Mehta(director), Mangal Pandey: One of Aamir’s rare flops
Dr.Chandraprakash Dwivedi, Samrat Prithviraj: the film released recently and bombed at the box office
In this case, Laal Singh Chaddha appears to be the dream project of Aamir Khan, another reason why the film will bomb at the box office.
Punjabi Factor
Aamir Khan’s Punjabi accent has also been met with criticism. The current highest grossing film where the main star was a Sikh wearing a Pagh (turban) is Akshay Kumar’s Kesari at 151 cr nett. Obviously, Kesari was a film having a much, much wider mass appeal than Laal Singh Chaddha. The All-India audience becomes limited as it is when the main character is a Sikh wearing a turban (with the rare historic Blockbuster such as Gadar which had loads of mass appeal!), but then on top of that, the North belt (the biggest takers for a Sikh character) are not going to want to watch Laal Singh Chaddha. Why? Because Aamir had not spoken anything in favor of the famers during the protest a while back.
Salman Khan was also playing a Sikh wearing a turban recently in Antim, and despite what Salman and the makers will tell you now, Salman was heavily featured in the promos and it was presented as being HIS film before release. Despite that, the film’s opening day collection was only 4.78 cr nett. Antim being an action entertainer with Salman in a macho role was obviously carrying loads and loads of more mass appeal as compared to Laal Singh Chaddha.
BOYCOTT Laal Singh Chaddha Trend
There is also a popular trend online calling for the Boycott of Laal Singh Chaddha. The problem is, it doesn’t appear to only be a social media trend: it seems to there on ground level as well, with a popular video being shared on social media with the public coming out of a cinema hall talking about how they will not be watching Laal Singh Chaddha. A great film with a lot of appreciation can overcome these obstacles, but as I’ve mentioned, Laal Singh Chaddha is going to be rejected with the content itself getting extremely negative WOM from the public.
LACK OF BUZZ/OPENING DAY
Reputed trade analyst Taran Adarsh put up a poll recently asking which film moviegoers want to see first: Raksha Bandhan or Laal Singh Chaddha. With over 100,000 votes, the majority have voted the option “none”. Again, you may think it’s just an online poll, but I remember similar polls being conducted online before the release of Thugs of Hindostan in which it showed that the audience was not interested in watching the film, and the results were there for all to see: after a record-breaking opening day (helped by the national holiday), the film crashed at the box office and became a Flop!
Opening Day: I predict that Laal Singh Chaddha will take a disastrous opening, with many shows being cancelled on Thursday morning itself due to lack of audience. Yes, you read that right!
There are some RIDICULOUS opening predictions being floated around on Twitter. I saw someone claiming to be an Aamir fan predict a 42 cr opening. Just imagine, a film with as low buzz and as niche as Laal Singh Chaddha getting an opening day close to Thugs of Hindostan, which was one of the most hyped films of the last decade and released on a national holiday…. RIDICULOUS!
I’ve seen someone speculate if Laal Singh Chaddha can get a 30 crore opening. Again, just imagine thinking this niche film can get an opening similar to Dhoom 3, which was one of the most anticipated films of all time.
Such ridiculous numbers will continue to float around until release, and then the trade will be in “SHOCK” again after the numbers look alarmingly low to them, when in reality, there’s nothing to be shocked about! The Raksha Bandhan holiday will come a bit to the aid of Laal Singh Chadda to boost the opening day collection, but without that holiday, the opening day numbers would’ve looked even worse and would indeed have been SCARY, especially given the competition with Akshay’s film Raksha Bandhan, which itself is going to be a Flop film but atleast it has much wider appeal than Laal Singh Chaddha, especially in mass/Hindi circuits.
The Director: Advait Chandan
Advait Chandan as a director has directed just one film prior to Laal Singh Chaddha, which was Secret Superstar. Secret Superstar itself was a disappointment at the box office, so much so that I recall Aamir allocating screens of that film on its second day to its competition Golmaal Again instead. Also, much like in the promos of Laal Singh Chaddha, Aamir’s acting also faced some criticism as well in Secret Superstar. Secret Superstar collected 4.77 cr nett on its opening day, and the shocking truth is, given the extremely low buzz of Laal Singh Chaddha (God knows the last time a Khan film carried such LOW buzz!), and given the competition with film Raksha Bandhan, Laal Singh Chaddha’s opening day collection will be only SLIGHLY HIGHER than that of Secret Superstar!
Laal Singh Chaddha: Aamir’s Tubelight
Overall, Laal Singh Chaddha is going to turn out to be Aamir Khan’s Tubelight. Whereas Tubelight was a box office FLOP that was still able to get lifetime collections of 115 cr nett due to Salman's star power and Eid period, Laal Singh Chaddha comes at a time when this type of OTT cinema is not finding any takers in the cinema halls. Also, Salman can take a film with negative WOM to higher lifetime collections than Aamir can: Race 3 did 166 cr nett lifetime collection, whereas Thugs of Hindostan collected 138 cr nett.
Akshay’s Raksha Bandhan, which is a Flop film as well, will collect higher lifetime collection than Laal Singh Chaddha, as it has a much wider appeal at an all-India level, especially in mass/Hindi circuits, compared to Laal Singh Chaddha.
What worked 10 years ago… won’t work now!
Aamir’s PK style acting won't work now. Aamir’s formula of taking a Hollywood film and making a desi Blockbuster out of it won't work now. Nothing will work now!
‘LAAL’ Indeed!
It’s ironic that the name of the film is ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’. The only thing ‘Laal’ will be the absolute BLOODBATH that this film is going to be for the Hindi film industry with its DISASTROUS box office performance!
END of an ERA
Finally, I must say….whatever goes up, must come down. Aamir Khan had a phenomenal run at the box office, right from around the time of his debut (the mega-success of Qayamat se Qayamat Tak in 1988) right until Dangal in 2016. That’s almost 30 years filled with box office Blockbusters!
But...the failure of Thugs of Hindostan ended up being the first sign that Aamir's run as a box office superstar is coming to an end.
Aamir Khan is 57 years old now. Amitabh Bachchan was 58 years old when he successfully transitioned into father roles with Mohabbatein. Actually, Dangal had already become the transition point for Aamir: the same way that Mohabbatein was a Blockbuster with Amitabh Bachchan playing the role of an elderly father, it was the same in Dangal as well, with Aamir playing an elderly father as well and the film becoming a huge Blockbuster.
What comes next for Aamir after Laal Singh Chadda will be similar to Amitabh in the 2000s onwards: more of a focus on character-based/acting-oriented roles and supporting roles, with little-to-none focus on box office.
Laal Singh Chaddha will mark the official end of Aamir’s box office superstardom as the film is set to become a box office DISASTER!
My ONLY, FINAL Box Office Predictions for Laal Singh Chaddha
Below, I will re-post my ONLY, FINAL box office predictions for Laal Singh Chaddha, which I originally posted on August 2, 2022 on Twitter.
-Bobby Sidhu