Everyone has kind of stopped commenting and reading lately on the blog, and I am also noticing that there aren’t that many new news stories. Another Simmba song, another PC wedding, that’s kind of it. Most of all, I am noticing that I myself don’t have much energy to write anything. Which got me thinking back on a post I first wrote before the release of Fan.
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.
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, looking at the steady small decrease in blog views, looking at the steady small decrease in energy.
With Dilwale/Bajirao, the last time a Shahrukh release was really big big news, 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 this movie and a few others, the most noticeable effect is the LACK of effect. There are very polished and practiced interviews with nothing controversial said. There is a very slight social media campaign, nothing really personal put on SRK’s twitter, just “thank you”s and video announcements. We are watching everything recede slowly, building up energy for the big blast that will release when the movie actually comes out.
Which is why I find this “seiche” so interesting. Because I can compare what happened before the last few Shahrukh movies and this one. Back when Fan came out, there was no other major film for weeks on either side. When Bajirao conflicted with Dilwale, it was seen as insanity, who would go up against Shahrukh? There certainly weren’t new trailers dropping (like the new Simmba song coming out tomorrow) or major social events (like PCs continued weddings) around his releases.
The subtle lapping back of the water to prepare for a wave is still there. There was no movie last week, and Simmba moved forward a week to avoid a direct clash. But it is much much smaller than it used to be. Leaving me to anticipate a much smaller seiche than before, because the ground is simply not prepared for it. But then, nature and the film audience can always surprise us.
dontcallitbollywood 
A good idea 🙂 It’s the awaiting of the storm (that hopefully will be a positive one). Unfortunately, I still have to wait a month… it’s unbelievable that in Germany the movie won’t be in theatres before mid-January (although in Austria and Switzerland it’ll be start on Friday).
Another reason for less comments could be the festive time ahead…at least it’s here with family. I myself don’t even have the time to read your major writings…it’s just ‘bits & pieces’.
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Oh, definitely the holidays are dropping views. Although not as bad as last year (yaaaay!). But there is also just the slight lack of other stories around, I noticed it this morning when I wanted to put together a news post and there really wasn’t anything juicey.
I am hoping the seiche this time is a good one, a wave of audience excitement and happiness, instead of a wave of bitterness and protests.
On Wed, Dec 19, 2018 at 4:16 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Claudia rejoice, Zero in a month would be a dream for me. In Brazil there are not enough Indian immigrants to justify Hindi movies exhibitions in theaters so I’ll have to wait for the DVD!
Best wishes for all in the blog and for Zero on his innovation project!
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Germany is the most SRK-y country in Europe, it so strange you have to wait a month. What is the reason for this delay?
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Maybe Pirating or something like that? More and more Hollywood films are releasing in India a week early and the only explanation I can think of is some kind of pirating prevention.
Or maybe they just weren’t organized enough to get all the permits in time.
Anyway, I look forward to hordes of German women rioting in the streets.
On Thu, Dec 20, 2018 at 10:27 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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WE are still here: reading and watching!!!
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I appreciate it! And I know I will get a big big seiche on my blog once I start posting reviews. Even if no other part of the world/internet cares and the movie turns into a big flop, us folks will be having a little party for weeks on end.
On Wed, Dec 19, 2018 at 5:42 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yeah I guess people are busy because of the holidays. As far as Zero goes, I think SRK has deliberately kept the promotions low-key. There is no direct clash this time so there are less worries and less need to go overboard. He has barely even promoted compared to what he usually does. I think he’s promoted for about a week which is nothing for him.
I also recall him saying a few years ago that he promotes more when he’s suspecting it’s not a great movie. For those it’s important to get the numbers in the first weekend in order to make it safe.
In minor news, SRK has said he’s considering between 7 or 8 movies after Zero. Out of those, one is the Rakesh Sharma biopic, one with Bhansali, Hindi Medium sequel with Kajol, a movie with Sriram Raghavan, and the next movie with Aanand Rai, and a few others we don’t know about.
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I think I saw that same SRK quote. I was mostly interested in the glimpse of his script process besides the details of the movie. We hear so many rumors about upcoming films, meeting with directors, and so on. And he has also mentioned that when Adi or Karan calls him, he drops everything and gives them any date.
From his 7-8 scripts comment, and the way he didn’t say it as though it was anything unusual, I think we can assume at any given point in the past 15 years, he has had 7-8 possible projects, and then some of them don’t pan out because the script fails in a rewrite, some of them aren’t ready soon enough, some of them can’t get the cast together, someone gets sick or has a personal conflict and it doesn’t work, or he gets one of those Karan/Adi calls and drops all 8.
I guess you would have to do it like that? If you want to keep working steadily, the lead time to a project being ready is so long, and there are so many things that can go wrong along the way, you have to keep 8 projects simmering simultaneously to make sure you always have work.
Abhinav Kashyap I think mentioned about Ra.One that he had a very detailed long first meeting with Shahrukh and then didn’t hear from him for like 7 months, and then got a call out of the blue saying “let’s do it”. I think we can assume SRK met with 8 other directors during that time about other projects, and then things shifted around and Ra,One was the one that suddenly looked most viable.
Right now, the Rakesh Sharma bio is the one everyone is buzzing about, but I bet if the scriptwriter is slow on rewrites or something, Shahrukh could end up doing a quickie indie type Hindi Medium sequel with Kajol instead.
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I think what you said about Karan was true 10 years ago but not anymore. He won’t drop everything for him. Their relationship stopped being that close many years ago. Right before Takht was announced, Karan gave a few interviews (weeks before) about how much he wants to work with SRK and is dying to make that happen. Prior to that there were a lot of rumors of a Karan Johar film with two heros and one being SRK. My guess from all that is that he turned it down. He will not be appearing on Karan’s talk show this year either which is odd since he’s doing promotional stuff right now anyway and could have fit that in as part of it if he wanted to.
From what I noticed in the Zero interviews, he also said he doesn’t want to do any “normal” or “template” films anymore and that’s it’s something he has no interest in but of course some of that hinges on Zero working. He has also consistently named Salman and Aamir as the people who are closest to him in the industry through all the Zero interviews, with Aamir being quite a surprising addition. No mention of Johar or the Chopras even when they are named by others like Katrina.
I don’t doubt that they are still friendly but dropping everything for them? Those days are long gone in my opinion. I don’t think either Karan or the Chopras have kept pace with the new world and are still stuck in the 90s so it’s better to avoid them.
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I wanna see SRK dissociate from the last crop of directors and attach himself to the latest set. Also, though I love me some JHMS, just get out of the romance business completely for a while. Don was a step in the right direction, but that was ten years ago, time to try something like that again. Andhadhun has me really interested in something vaguely like that for him. Hindi Medium 2 would be too maudlin for him, he needs something more actor-y and quick-paced, something with mystery and thrills.
While I’m looking forward to Zero, I think its core being love, romance, and love triangle will keep him in his box. A good template might be how George Clooney has charted his leading-man post-heart-throb career.
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Sriram Raghavan wants to make a film with SRK and has been talking about it. I hope it happens. This is exactly the kind of edgy thing that would work for SRK.
He has also said recently that he has asked Anand Rai and Himanshu Sharma to develop an action movie for him, but one with a lot of craziness. They are apparently going to start work on it after Zero but it would probably take time so it would not be instantaneous. Also obviously all that would go down the drain if Zero flops.
I’m also with you when it comes to Hindi Medium. Do. Not. Want. That would be too dorky a direction for him to head towards. He needs something more exciting.
Bhansali movie also sounds snoozeworthy! The man makes trash wrapped up in big budgets and costumes.
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I really hope the Bhansali movie doesn’t happen. I think the combination of the two of them would be a disaster, with Shahrukh in this actor’s-actor phase, and Bhansali in this “big sets and crazy stories” phase.
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I love what he did in Raees and Dear Zindagi, but somehow that didn’t seem to register as a change in his public persona, even promoting DZ he and Alia were talking like a couple with her talking about her crush on him and so on. And same with him and Mahira for Raees. I think he needs to do something totally different in the film AND make sure the audience knows it is totally different and registers what he did. Oh! Fan also! No romance there, dark and twisted and action based. But again, sold with the charming Shahrukh flirting.
Ittefaq would have been just what you were looking for, but he backed off because he knew he would overshadow the film. That’s the problem, it has to be a film so exciting and dangerous and twisted that he can’t overshadow it, and it can be promoted without him. That’s what Don was, but it’s got to be hard to find.
On Wed, Dec 19, 2018 at 7:56 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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It’s hard to promote a film differently. He is just charming by nature so that’s difficult to cover up. Look at those Zero interviews. Even the female interviewers fawn all over him so even if he doesn’t want to get into that space, there’s no way out.
I was really hoping we would see him on KwK with another male guest because that would really change the dynamic. He would not be able to default to his regular charmer attitude. But he totally skipped it!
Honestly, he should have come on with Aamir now that I think about it. It would have livened up boring Aamir and SRK would have gotten a different dynamic to play. But unfortunately, I think Aamir is always wary of getting overshadowed which he no doubt would be in such a scenario.
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Oh my gosh you are right! Him and Aamir would have been perfect. They are both witty with language, both very serious about the industrial side of film, and both insanely competitive. I would love watching them play off each other in rapid fire, love watching a three way discussion between them and Karan about industrial issues, and really love watching them go up against each other in the final quiz.
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At the Ambani wedding there’s a clip of SRK dancing over to Aamir and hugging him and exchanging a few words and it was endearing because the body language seemed to be encouraging, like SRK knew Aamir was self-conscious and wanted to reassure him. It would be fascinating to see them get into a really deep discussion about the industry.
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WTH is this? I find it more cringe-y than cute. First, they used the most ADD kids, as if to emphasize that these are indeed kids. Then, he isn’t releasing a cartoon or a children’s movie, so why this? Finally, he doesn’t really have the touch for this, it’s like his mkting team forced him into this, to broaden his appeal. He looks like he’s being forced to eat his veggies.
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I had to watch it because I was curious. He is good with kids, but I think not in this setting. He is more good with sitting down and having a conversation and a real moment with them, just talking to the camera and pretending it is a child is WEIRD.
I think your marketing team guess is probably right, I am sure this kind of video gets a lot of hits online so they convinced him to do it, even though it isn’t on brand for Zero, just to get his name out there.
On Thu, Dec 20, 2018 at 9:48 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Very few men could make this work. I can only envision Ranveer, Ayushmann, and Salman pulling this off successfully.
But judging from the comments section of the video, most people are loving it. So what do I know.
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What’s wrong with the video? It’s cute. I guess they do this as clutter breakers because stars do so many interviews during promotion time that it all blends together. This looks different and is not as heavy and serious as some of those 30 minute long interviews.
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