Thread by @TheAtulMishra

The hype is less about #Shahrukh and more about Yashraj - A thread about #Pathaan

Yashraj is the biggest production house in the country and it has been delivering flops after flops.

Here is a list of last 5 YRF movies. Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar, Bunty Aur Babli 2, Jayeshbhai Jordaar, Samrat Prithviraj and Shamshera. Before that it was Zero, Fan, and Thugs of Hindostan.

Yashraj has a stellar business model with long contracts with big stars and promising actors. Its contracts have featured Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan and more recently Ranveer Singh and Siddhant Chaturvedi.

It’s always economical to sign a one time deal than pay on a per-film basis, hich totally depends on the actor’s current market value.

Yashraj does most of the things in-house, that is it doesn’t just sponsor a movie but takes care of most of the technical aspects as well as the release.

It’s impossible for a cinema chain to say no to Yashraj’s demand of obscene number of screens. It’s impossible for actors to walk out of its contracts.

The flops jolted Yashraj’s credentials. No star would get into a long term contract with a flop machine. And Cinema chains had started baring their fangs already.

Pathan has to work for Yashraj to survive. Shahrukh made himself unavailable for 4 years while featuring well written cameos. It was a teaser for SRK fans (and there still are many).

There were also a number of articles and documentary style FB and YouTube videos that promoted Shahrukh Khan as a larger than life figure. All of it was again well written.

So Pathan cannot be a flop. No one will ever get to know the real numbers. Yashraj will gladly take another loss to ensure future profits and Shahrukh will get his stardom back, at least in media articles.

But such strategies aren’t long lasting. The audience is smart and tech savvy. I posted a video of vacant Noida cinema halls. People responded to my tweet showing how Pathan is faring badly almost everywhere.

No one believed Brahmastra’s collection. No one will believe Pathan’s but it will be a massive blockbuster, maybe even bigger than KGF2, RRR and Bahubali. Purely on paper.