In 2013, Sudhir Kothari woke up to a notification that many can only dream of. His favourite Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan followed him back on Twitter. A decade later, he mobilised the same account — known as SRK Chennai Fan Club with over 1.5 lakh followers — to fight the hate and boycott trend against Pathaan. The fan club’s reach is spread across 120 Indian cities and 35 countries. It’s a strategy that Tamil cinema has used for years — activating fan clubs to lure the audience.
Ditching the conventional method of promoting a film through press interviews and The Kapil Sharma Show appearances, Yash Raj Films joined hands with the ‘best’ marketeers for Shah Rukh — his ardent fans. Pathaan has collected over Rs 950 crore worldwide to date.
By booking tickets for fans en masse, selling merchandise like T-shirts, mobile covers, badges, stationery, and keychains, playing on nostalgia by celebrating 15 years of Om Shanti Om (Shah Rukh and Deepika’s first film together) in the run-up to Pathaan’s release, fan clubs built strong momentum around the film.
“It is not uncommon to see giant-size posters and statues of Tamil superstars like Rajinikanth, Ajith, or Vijay. But it is a rare feat for a Bollywood superstar,” says Kothari, while speaking about the 80-feet cut-out of SRK outside Chennai’s Woodlands Theatres that was showered with flowers and milk to commemorate the superstar’s return to the screen after four years.
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Bollywood going the Kollywood way
Since 2018, when many Bollywood films started to tank at the box office, and South Indian cinema gained popularity in the North, boycott slurs ran parallelly on social media as ominous background scores.
Many big-budget films like Laal Singh Chaddha (2022) spiralled downwards after addressing boycott trends head-on at press conferences. While actor Aamir Khan reiterated his love for the country, Kareena Kapoor Khan requested fans to watch the film.
But Pathaan played the game differently.
Film stars in Tamil Nadu are known to voice their opinions and views on political issues. From M.G. Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa to Rajinikanth, Chiranjeevi, and Kamal Haasan, all have enjoyed successful film and political careers.
Among the next generation of Tamil superstars, Dhanush, Ajith, and Vijay also rely heavily on their fan clubs for their films’ success. In 2022 — the year that belonged to South Indian cinema with RRR, Kantara, Ponniyin Selvan-I, KGF: Chapter 2 becoming big hits — Dhanush had four releases (Maaran, The Gray Man, Thiruchitrambalam, Naane Varuvean). Except for The Gray Man, Dhanush’s Hollywood debut, all others were shot in Tamil and released in different languages across India. Dhanush neither appeared on any reality TV show nor gave exclusive interviews to promote the film. It was solely due to the hype created by his fan clubs that the films did well at the box office.
Ajith and Vijay also fall in the same category. The two clashed at the box office for their Pongal releases this year — Thunivu and Varisu. Neither carried any pre-release promotions. But that did not deter fans to reach theatres. Videos were circulated showing scores of fans dancing inside the cinema halls and queuing up outside the gates for the ‘first day, first show’, even as early as 5 am.
The performance of these actors’ previous films at the box office seems to have no impact on their latest releases. It is the same case with Shah Rukh Khan as well. Zero (2018), Jab Harry Met Sejal (2017), and Fan (2016) failed to create any major impact. But fans remained unperturbed.
“For the first time in 52 years, a film got a 9 am show as the first screening of the day as opposed to the usual 12 noon show,” says Yash Paryani, co-founder of Shah Rukh Khan Universe Fans, about Pathaan’s screening at Mumbai’s famous G7 Multiplex.
The fan club, founded in 2013, selected several theatres across 200 cities and booked over 50,000 seats for fans for the first show of the day. “Our marketing strategy came into action from last year itself around SRK’s birthday in November. Since it was also the 15-year anniversary of Om Shanti Om, we also ran shows of that film in major cities to celebrate their pairing and the film’s success,” says Paryani, 26, who works as a marketing professional at a Mumbai-based gaming company.
Also read: Pathaan is not just any other Hindi movie. It’s a battle for India
SRK — the self-marketed brand
In a day and age when actors are easily accessible — thanks to social media — Shah Rukh Khan has managed to retain his mysterious ‘star’ aura. While he often has virtual interactions under the #AskSRK hashtag on Twitter, it is restricted to banter, smart one-liners, and fan service. He takes on even the most bizarre or controversial comments with wit and candour.
It was during one of these interactions in 2013 that Kothari was followed back by Shah Rukh Khan. Since then, many fan clubs — with verified handles — have gained lakhs of followers and a ‘follow back’ from their dearest star.
Despite no high-decibel marketing campaign, the success of the fan-club marketing and Pathaan speaks volumes about the formidable stardom of Shah Rukh Khan.
“It is a celebration like a festival,” says Paryani whose fan club also distributed customised Pathaan kites on Makar Sankranti, shortly after the trailer was released. Charlie Yerme, the president of Nagpur-based ‘The Club SRK’, put up posters and performed a flash dance for the first day first show. SRK Chennai Fan Club organised multiple repeat screenings of the film and used memes, jokes, and hashtags to fight the boycott gang.
“It was the thousands of videos of dancing fans that lured even neutral fans to watch Pathaan. Even the ones who were boycotting [the movie] came to the theatres to witness the spectacle,” says Kothari. He has written a book on his experience as an SRK fan and runs a business venture under a name inspired by Shah Rukh’s 2007 film Chak De India.
Kothari has watched Pathaan eight times and will continue to watch the film till it is running in theatres.
“Is there any other way to relish a Shah Rukh Khan film?” he says with a smile.
(Edited by Humra Laeeq)