Despite beating Hrithik Roshan once, Shah Rukh Khan should still be worried about clashing Raees with Kaabil!

Trade experts feel there’s a slight change this time…

Let’s rewind a bit. This is 2000. In January 14, a good looking actor arrived at the box office like a storm which left the nation in a tizzy. He was perhaps the only incredibly handsome actor people had seen after Salman Khan at that time. He was just perfect in every department. We are talking about Hrithik Roshan. He rose to such prominence that people started predicting how Shah Rukh Khan’s might get affected now. But when they clashed with Mission Kashmir and Mohabbatein in the same year, the latter rocked the box office. Cut to 2017, yet again HR’s film will clash with SRK’s – Kaabil vs Raees. So will history repeat itself or this time HR will score? We asked trade experts and their answers might make SRK woried.

Trade expert Akshaye Rathi (Exhibitor-Distributor) said, “That was Shah Rukh Khan at the prime of his career with Aditya Chopra directing the film. That was the glory era of SRK, Yash Raj. Aditya Chopra was coming after DDLJ. The equation was entirely different then. Hrithik Roshan came right after Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hain and couple of big films… a very different equation. Now the scenario is Shah Rukh is coming after a Fan which has underperformed and Hrithik Roshan is coming after Bang Bang which did great numbers but incurred losses for many distributors. That’s because it was an extremely expensive film.”

We decided to take a second opinion and spoke to our other Trade expert Amul Mohan who is also the Editor of Super Cinema. He gave facts that’s both interesting and worrisome. He said, “See, then Hrithik was a newcomer and Shah Rukh was a raging star. That time Mohabbatein was directed by someone who gave DDLJ. It was a really big film for it to have comparison. Mohabbatein made more money. It had a lot of things going for it also. I personally feel this time around things have changed. Shah Rukh Khan has a situation here. I am talking about Fan’s debacle and also about his last three films. Chennai Express made 206 cr, Happy New Year made 180-185 cr, Dilwale came and made 131 cr and now Fan which couldn’t go beyond 80 cr. There is a decline in box office numbers if you compare him to other actors in the same bracket. He is in a very peculiar spot right now. He can get out of this rut with a good film as Raees looks like. Then it will be a great situation for him. But if he doesn’t have a solo release, it will get hampered to some degree as well.”

So in all probability, 2000’s win may not get repeated for Shah Rukh in 2017. But we feel his fans will take care of it. Won’t you?

Despite beating Hrithik Roshan once, Shah Rukh Khan should still be worried about clashing Raees with Kaabil!