I don’t have anything to watch this weekend!  Maybe I will actually be desperate enough to try out a Telugu release in theaters (Sardaar Gabbar Singh is supposed to be a sequel to a remake of Dabangg, and I feel like I have seen Dabangg enough that I could probably figure out what is happening).  But after weeks of having something new and exciting every Friday, the Hindi prospects this week are just dismal.

Do you know what a seiche is?  I didn’t, until a friend told me about one she had seen.  It’s kind of like a Tsunami, but in fresh water, so it is more subtle.  Most of the time, it isn’t really noticeable, unless it is an extra calm day and you are really paying attention.  The sign isn’t so much the big surge of water, but the way the water suddenly recedes a noticeable amount right before the wave hits, leaving boats hanging on their moorings and sudden stretches of open sand at beaches (see picture above).

Anyway, that’s what this week feels like, the subtle receding of water to gather power for a big wave next week.  But you would hardly notice it if you weren’t watching closely, like me, looking for the movie I can watch this Friday.  And it is the only sign that the surge is gathering power for next week.

With Dilwale/Bajirao, by one week out, you could already feel the wave coming.  The soundtracks were everywhere, every actor was making public appearances and riding high on a twitter wave.  Remember before Dilwale, it got so crazy websites were even digging up old articles on AbRam, because anything with “Shahrukh” in the headline was playing big?  And Shahrukh was giving interviews on everything, whether or not it was related to the actual film?  And, of course, politicians were getting in the momentum as well, complaining about both films, and just giving more force to them in the process.  It was the entire national conversation for weeks on end.  And then for even more weeks, as we all closely tracked the horse race of which film would do better at the box office.

But with Fan, everything is being played close to the chest.  Shahrukh is posting slightly more on twitter, but not making any public appearances.  And I haven’t heard a thing about anyone else in the cast, or even the director or Yash Raj promoting it.  I went to that Vishal and Shekhar concert a couple weeks ago, and they didn’t even play “Jabra Fan.”

It’s a smart strategy.  In a bunch of ways.  For one thing, I think Shahrukh/Yash Raj doesn’t want to get the politicians all het up again, and if the film has a lower profile, they are less likely to try to piggyback on its publicity.  For another, the Dilwale total immersion strategy ended up causing a bit of a backlash, no film could live up to that hype either in terms of quality or box office (unless it really was another DDLJ), and when it didn’t, the audience and the distributors both resented Shahrukh for over-promising.

But the biggest thing is, I think he is trying to keep this from being a SHAHRUKH KHAN film.  All along, he has been promoting it as about the fans, the little people, not him.  He put out those videos focused on not just his fans, but on fandom in general.  The song release event was at a Delhi university with students, not at a big fancy hotel or press conference.  And it called back to his own history as a student there, back before he was SHAHRUKH, when he was still just Shahrukh.  So this final few weeks of promotion is similarly low key.  A few posts on twitter, mostly responding to fans’ comments.  Some clever videos making fun of himself on April Fool’s Day.  Actually a lot about his other projects, KKR and Raees.  Putting this film in context as just one thing he is working on, not the total focus of his energy.

Which is why I find this “seiche” so impressive.  Even without putting the full force of his power behind it, next week is still going to bring such a big wave to the box office, that everything is already quietly receding to gather strength.  I mean, look at my life!  I’m probably going to skip seeing a movie this week, partly because there is nothing out I want to watch, but also because instead of finding friends to go with this week, I am already coordinating our plans for a joint screening of the First Day/First Show next week.  And saving my money for that ticket, and my energy for those posts (rather than writing more posts this weekend an another less popular movie).

This is real stardom, that all you have to do is have a film which exists in the world, and everything else will retreat before you (leaving Ki and Ka high and dry, I’m guessing.  They really should have given it more than just a 2 week buffer before Fan).