It wouldn’t be wrong to say that 2023 was the year of Shah Rukh Khan. The Bollywood superstar made a comeback on the big screen as the leading hero in Pathaan after four years. The wait was long but truly worth it. Shedding his romantic persona, Shah Rukh took on the armour of an action hero, and boy, what a hero he became! His new avatar not only impressed critics but also audiences. Fans lined up outside theatres as early as 5 am to watch the first show of Pathaan, which also featured Deepika Padukone and John Abraham, and the shows that followed ran houseful, for the five-day long weekend.
As a result, Pathaan scored a record-breaking opening weekend collection. As reported by Bollywood Hungama, Pathaan recorded an opening of Rs 280.75 cr box office collection. The film, which also turned out to be a landmark film for Yash Raj Films, earned a jaw-dropping lifetime collection of Rs 543.05 cr in India and Rs 1050.3 cr. worldwide, setting a new benchmark of Rs 1000 crore collection at the box office.
The release played a crucial not only for Shah Rukh’s career but for Bollywood as a whole. The superstar truly revived Bollywood at the box office, breaking the bad spell after the Covid-19 lockdown. Pathaan instilled confidence among distributors and producers to release big-budget films and many performed well at the box office as well. While many movies like Gadar 2, OMG 2, Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar, and Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani kept the momentum going at the box office, Shah Rukh returned for another banger and raised the stakes higher with Jawan.
In his first film with Atlee, Shah Rukh not only embraced the action avatar yet again but doubled it up with a dual role. Playing the role of an identical father and son, SRK let go of all inhibitions and became the massy hero we’d all been waiting to see him as. Anirudh Ravichander’s iconic ‘massy massy’ BGM and Rajakumari’s rap dedicated to King Khan took the film a notch higher and blew up the box office.
Jawan opened to a mammoth collection of Rs 75 cr on its opening day and ended its four-day opening weekend with a collection of Rs 286.16 cr. Spending a little over two months at the box office in India, Jawan recorded a lifetime collection of Rs 643.87 cr. in India and a whopping Rs 1148.32 cr. worldwide collection.
Just when you thought that we would meet him in December, Shah Rukh surprised fans on Diwali with a cameo in Tiger 3. Sharing the screen with Salman Khan yet again, his cameo instantly became the talk of the town. The Diwali ‘mithai’ was sweet but the true Diwali-Christmas gift came in the form of Rajkumar Hirani and SRK collab — Dunki.
Having released just in time for Christmas, the film broke away from Shah Rukh’s style of movies in recent years. The film removed the superstar aura from him, making him yet another boy in Punjab. Although his love for Taapsee Pannu in the film was a subplot, his love for the country and people around him was higher, and that connected with the audience. The film emerged as yet another hit of Shah Rukh’s career. At the time of reporting, the film reports a worldwide box office collection of Rs 444.44 cr.
While these three movies placed the crown of Bollywood comfortably on his head, several Bollywood stars reminded us of Shah Rukh’s humbleness in interviews, chats, and social media posts throughout the year. Who could forget Mona Singh’s viral selfie with SRK at his star-studded birthday party and that he reached out to her after learning she didn’t get a photo with him, or Dunki star Vikram Kochhar revealing that the superstar threw him a surprise birthday party despite a hectic shoot schedule on the sets of their film.
2023 might be memorable for many reasons but it will always be remembered as the year of Shah Rukh Khan. The actor is all set to kick off 2024 on a memorable note as well with his appearance in the 13th edition of CNN-News18 Indian of the Year.
Tune in to CNN-News18 Indian of the Year 2023 LIVE on January 10, 2024, 6 pm onwards, only on CNN-News18.
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