Just last year, the industry suffered big time due to back-to-back flops. 2023 showed signs of improvement and the month of August brought cheer like never before. And now, the industry and fans are waiting with bated breath for the release of ‘Jawan’. The Shah Rukh Khan-starrer arrives in cinemas tomorrow, that is, September 7 and the excitement is historic, to say the least.
‘Jawan’ was announced with an exciting video showing Shah Rukh Khan in a bandaged look at a metro station. The video was released on June 2, 2022, with the mention that the film will be out in theatres on June 2, 2023. Due to pending post-production work, ‘Jawan’ was delayed to September 7. The teaser was unveiled in July and it created a frenzy. It showed SRK opening the bandage and he turns out to be bald. This is one of the many looks he has in the film, making people wonder if he has a double role.
This was followed by the unveiling of the songs, “Zinda Banda” and “Chaleya”. These tracks didn’t get the desired response. Meanwhile, ‘Gadar 2’ set the box office on fire. Skeptics began speculating that ‘Jawan’ now won’t work since a chunk of the audience has spent a bomb on the tickets to the Sunny Deol starrer. But as days passed, these people had to eat their words.
The buzz for Jawan went to another level in the last 10 days. The third song, “Not Ramaiya Vastavaiya”, was well-received. Jawan’s events in Chennai and Dubai became talking points. The advance booking finally commenced on September 1 and in no time, the tickets began selling like hot cakes. The demand was such that theatres had to play shows even at 6:00 am. Many cinemas did it for the first time.
Shah Rukh Khan’s last release ‘Pathaan’ collected Rs. 55.72 Crore on the first day of release despite it being a non-holiday. On the second day, Republic Day, it collected a record-breaking Rs. 68 Crore. ‘Jawan’ releases on Janmashtami, a part-holiday. As a result, the opening day collections can be around Rs. 65 Crore. It can even go past the numbers of ‘Pathaan’. This is because, on the day of release, spot booking happens extensively. After all, for ‘Pathaan’, it seemed like it would collect around Rs. 48-50 Crore on the day of release. But it managed to collect more. The same happened with ‘Gadar 2’. It was expected to open at Rs. 35 Crore and it ended up earning Rs. 40 Crore on the first day.
Hence, with ‘Jawan’, be prepared to be surprised. Also, these are just the predictions for the Hindi version. The Tamil version will also score as the director, Atlee, is from the Tamil industry and so are the co-actors, Nayanthara and Vijay Sethupathi. As a result, the total collections from Hindi, Tamil and Telugu can be around Rs. 75 Crore. Add the overseas figure to it and there’s a high possibility that ‘Jawan’ will be the first Hindi film to collect Rs. 100 crores gross worldwide in a single day!
If the response is positive, ‘Jawan’s Hindi version will collect Rs. 225-250 Crore by Sunday, September 10. The first week’s collections will be around Rs. 350 Crore after which it’ll chase the numbers of the Rs. 500 Crore grossers, ‘Pathaan’ and ‘Gadar 2’. The absence of major competition for the subsequent weeks will play a huge role too. If the public reports are bad, ‘Jawan’ will still have a healthy total as most moviegoers are sure to watch the film at least once.
