With Shahrukh Khan’s comeback with Pathan, fan clubs are booking theaters to celebrate Shah Rukh Khan’s festival amid amazing advance booking

To understand the impact of SRK’s comeback and what it means for the brothers and his fans, we reached out to a fan club, trade expert, and model.

Yash Paryani, 26, represents SRK Universe, one of SRK’s most active fan clubs. When asked how they are preparing for the actor’s comeback on the big screen, Yash shared, “It’s nothing short of a festival. We always celebrate his releases like festivals and with Pathan, he’s making a big comeback after four long years, so he’s very special. We’ve missed seeing him on the big screen and we’ll turn this around.” To a big celebration We have performances planned in more than 200 cities, even in Mumbai. We used to have one showing for each of his films, but this time we have six. We have five new offers Delhifour inches Kolkata, three in Aurangabad. We are also doing first day shows in smaller cities like Nanded and Aurangabad, so we have huge plans. The first fan show in Mumbai takes place at 9 am at the Gaiety Galaxy in Bandra. This has not happened in over 15 years. There are places where performances start as early as 6 in the morning.

Fan clubs play an important role in creating hype for superstars and SRK Universe is no different. “We have booked more than 50,000 tickets across India for the first day show. But we are not limiting ourselves to just that, we will be celebrating Pathan Day on January 26th and it will be Republic Day with Pathan followed by Pathan weekend. It is not just a one day affair, We are looking forward to celebrating this film in the coolest way. There is a lot of excitement,” Yash shares.

SRK Universe will be distributing Pathaan themed merchandise at the screening of the film. (Images: Yash Paryani/Shahrukh Khan Universe)

SRK World was established in the year 2013 by Maldivian national Mohamed Ashraf. Yash joined the fan club in 2014. The fan club pushes SRK fans to experience the star’s films with more enthusiasm. “There will be the usual fanfare, we’ll have huge chunks of SRK plastered on the windows of several theatres. We’ll have Pathaan-themed T-shirts, phone cases and wristbands designed for the masses. We wanted to go all out in terms of Pathaan merchandise..”

Multiples also report an enthusiastic response at ticket counters. Rajinder Singh Jayala, Chief Programming Officer, INOX Leisure Ltd says, “Pathaan’s impressive booking trends underscore the importance and appetite for high-quality content coming out of the Indian film industry. We are already seeing records breaking, the main one being the highest ever advance for any Indian film. We are Pretty sure the movie will live up to the huge hype it has made.The whole country is looking forward to this long awaited release,which is a very encouraging sign, not only for cinemas but for the entire film industry.This excitement bodes well for us,and we are sure that The list of content in the near future will maintain this hysteria.

India goes berserk! A whopping 2.75 lakh #pathan Tickets sold out till the end of the week at all INOX cinemas in India! Don’t miss out on this madness, book your tickets now for the biggest action movie of 2023. JUST 2 DAYS FOR PATHAAN#PathaanAdvance Reservations #INOX #LiveTheMovie pic.twitter.com/eGs7plQ8c4

– INOX Leisure Ltd. (INOXMovies) January 23, 2023

While fans rejoice at Shah Rukh Khan’s return to the big screen, and multiplexes celebrate the massive advance bookings, moviegoers and single-screen cinema owners are worried because the film has faced its share of controversy and there are fears of possible cases of vandalism.

Desai’s handExecutive Director of G7 Multiplex, Gaiety Galaxy and Maratha Mandir in Mumbai, “There are two morning shows tomorrow, one at Gaiety and one at Galaxy, and both are fully fan club shows. This is the first time I’ve booked fan club shows in the last 51 years.”

Sharing his concern about the bastards, he says, “Bookings for other showings in all my cinemas are around 80-90%, so I see excitement around the film among SRK fans. Wali Bat Bhi District Chadi Chai Chal Rahi Hai So I am very worried about what it will be like tomorrow and over the weekend. Until everything is settled where there is no protection.”

What does the trade have to say about SRK’s comeback? What does a movie’s box office performance mean for the cinema business? Girish Johar, producer and film business expert, describes the hype and booking as “extremely critical”. “We expect a great start to 2023, after two very bad years starting with the pandemic in 2020,” says Johar. COVID-19 Closing and then flopping in the year 2022, this movie will not only boost the level of confidence but will bring excitement back again within the fraternity and the audiences. It hopes to get the whole system back on track, so it’s a very important wheel in the whole scheme of things.”

Read … #pathan Box Office Predictions: Shahrukh Khan’s comeback to earn Rs 200 crore in first 5 days provides momentum for Bollywood: @tweet @tweet @deepika@tweet @tweet https://t.co/mIne6z9MnN

– Girish Johar (@girishjohar) January 24, 2023

Johar also believes that a superstar never takes breaks, his stardom is never questioned, and so the film will only go up in SRK’s future. He says, “This is my personal opinion, I don’t think stars take a break or vacation. It’s like they want to rethink and come up with something new, take a hiatus or something. But that doesn’t mean his star has to be revived or he has to become A new star. He’s a huge star, a global star. They’re releasing the movie in over a hundred countries globally, which totally speaks to his stature. Yeah, he’s taken a break, but in terms of his energy levels, we can all see from the trailer that the action is Brilliant. The movie has a big star and villain, both of whom are great screen presences then and there DeepikaI don’t think Bollywood currently has anything bigger than this to offer.”

Johar says Pathan has the potential to take the film industry back to “normal pre-Covid-19 times”. He says, “If this movie succeeds in breaking the mold, then we can go back to normal times like 2018-2019. This proves that the audience wants entertaining cinema, and SRK has used a smart strategy to promote this movie. So it gives a lot of confidence to the brothers. Then we have other movies.” Matrix too, so this movie will keep audiences coming back to theaters and breaking their casual habit of watching OTT.”