The year 2017 has been a rather tumultuous year for Bollywood, with some big ticket releases underperforming at the box office, while on the other hand a few smaller releases have made it big at the box office. Echoing a similar trend was the Salman Khan starrer Tubelight that released earlier this year. Directed by Kabir Khan, the film which had been making headlines since its announcement did not manage to entice the audience on its release. In fact, Tubelight that released around the festive weekend of Eid severely underperformed at the box office with collections figures remaining rather low for a Salman Khan starrer.
Now a couple of months on and yet another big ticket release seems to be following suit. Yes, we are in fact referring to the Shah Rukh Khan – Anushka Sharma starrer Jab Harry Met Sejal that was directed by Imtiaz Ali. Touted to be one among the big releases this year, the film opened to a lukewarm response from the critics, with the audience too preferring to stay away. Interestingly, though the film witnessed a good trend in terms of advance booking over its opening weekend, the under Rs. 50 cr collections over this three day period spoke volumes of the audience’s reaction towards the film.
Despite the slow start the collections of Jab Harry Met Sejal saw decent numbers on its first Monday owing to the festive occasion of Raksha Bandhan however, on the subsequent Tuesday the film faced the real litmus test of performance on a working day. But with approximately only Rs. 2.50 crores coming in on Tuesday the film which was expected to be a money spinner clocked Rs. 55.90 cr only. If that wasn’t all, the ensuing weekdays Wednesday and Thursday also recorded similarly low collections of approximately Rs. 2.25 cr and Rs. 2 cr respectively.
Given the current scenario, Jab Harry Met Sejal which had just one week to rake in the moolah especially since the Akshay Kumar starrer Toilet – Ek Prem Katha released this week is now expected to close business less than Rs. 65 cr. With projected collections as low as these, and the fact that certain territories witnessed shows of Jab Harry Met Sejal being cancelled owing to low response, the film might just turn out to be Shah Rukh Khan’s lowest grossing film till date [in last seven years], even when compared to Fan that had collected Rs. 84.10 cr.
