Just a month ago, we saw how Newton, a small filmsurpassed its big-budgeted competitors, Bhoomi and Haseena Parkar at the box office. Now 30 days later, almost the reverse has occurred. A film, backed by Aamir Khan no less and birthed by his production house, has been bulldozed at the box office by Rohit Shetty’s Golmaal Again, the fourth in a commercial comedy franchise. Critics’ reviews and positive word of mouth established the former to be better, but box office collections say the opposite . As of Tuesday, Secret Superstar — which released a day earlier last Thursday — made ₹36.5crore net while the Ajay Devgn-starrer entered the ₹100-crore club with ₹116.6 crore net before the week was up.
Before analysing Secret Superstar ’s slow pace, let’s look at what Golmaal Again did right. “The Indian audience always prefers entertaining films over an intelligent one,” says Girish Johar, a trade and business analyst. “They don’t mind watching mindless entertainment and Judwaa 2 has proved that too.” The Varun-Dhawan film made ₹131.09 crore net and is still in theatres. Diwali’s festive atmosphere made the audience’s choice easier when it came to a family comedy or a serious subject. They picked Golmaal Again , made on reported budget of ₹70 to ₹80 crore.
On the other hand, while Secret Superstar did lure viewers to witness the indomitable spirit of a young aspiring singer, but it was accompanied with a story about domestic abuse. Despite being deftly handled, it didn’t make for a typical choice during Deepavali. The film’s subject nullified any advantage the additional day’s release would have brought. “ Secret Superstar is a relatively niche film and has done fairly well for the audience it is designed for,” maintains Shailesh Kapoor of Ormax Media, a firm specialising in trade insights. “If it was a solo release, it could have done more. It’s not equal in budget or brand value [compared to Golmaal Again ].”
Reportedly made on a budget of ₹16 to ₹25 crore, the Aamir Khan Production, Secret Superstar ’s got theatres across the country (1,750 screens) to allot a 50:50 ratio of timings with its competitor. However, by Saturday the scales had swung to a 60:40 change, in favour of Golmaal Again . Plus Shetty’s film released to 3,500 screens successfully getting up to 80% occupancy in both multiplexes and single screens across the board. The added showtimes only furthered its stronghold at the box office. “If Secret Superstar released on another date it would have had a better collection,” says Sreedhar Pillai, a trade analyst agreeing with Kapoor and Johar. “I wouldn’t advice a niche film to release during a festival, a mass senseless film will always win.”
Initially billed for a June or July release, Secret Superstar was delayed to October due to production issues, never deliberately aiming for a festive date. “But the content has appreciation and the feedback has been positive,” says Kapoor about the film’s theatrical life adding that it has performed well in areas where Diwali’s impact is comparatively less, like in Bengaluru. While Golmaal Again is touted to make approximately ₹200 crore by the end of this week, Kapoor argues that niche films like Secret Superstar take a while to pick up traction. A busy period like Diwali would have furthered that delay. “One will get a better sense of the matter with the upcoming weekend and there’s no major release till Padmavati [in December],” says Kapoor. “November is entirely empty. Mass audiences come in faster and a film gets saturated sooner. Secret Superstar could have business for the next two to three weeks.” Additionally, Khan’s film will release across Tamil Nadu — where the star does have an established fan base — this Friday, after a late release due to the state’s double taxation (over and above GST) issues. It may have started slow, but there’s hope yet for the film to replicate that Newton effect.
