Don dents King Khan's image
The film, which did extremely well in the first week, has registered a drop in collections at many centres.
It seems Shah Rukh Khan's irresistible charm and the incredible slickness and style used by Farhan Akhtar in Don - The Chase Begins have not been able to save the film from biting the dust.
Just like Karan Johar's infidelity drama Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, this action thriller has been given the thumbs down by the audience, going by the upsetting drop in collections since it released Oct 20, a day before Diwali.
In the first few days, Don, a remake of the 1978 Amitabh Bachchan starrer of the same name, garnered good profits mainly due to its pre-release publicity and slick television promos. Critics have since panned it as a weak film.
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| Shah Rukh Khan's Don has failed to create magic at the box-office. |
"Any film which has a good star cast and proper media hype does well in the first week in terms of collections. It happened with
Don
. It had big names like Shah Rukh and director Farhan Akhtar and it was marketed smartly. So the initial collections were good," said Deepka Gupta, a New Delhi-based media consultant.
According to a report on boxofficeindia.com, the film did exceedingly well in the first week in spite of discouraging reports.
It earned hit status in Mumbai, east Punjab, West Bengal and Mysore. The first week box office collections were 75-80 percent. However, the eighth day registered a drop in collections at many centres. It stood at about 55 percent.
However, Shah Rukh prefers not to take the critics seriously or the viewpoint of moviegoers, many of whom have not liked the modern Don at all. "It is a waste of money. I couldn't sit through the movie after the interval," said Kanat Jain, a 60-something movie buff, who wasn't floored by the film's slickness. Many others found the film stylish, but beyond that they had nothing good to say about it.
"The title song was shot nicely. Kareena Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra were looking good and sexy. But the script was very bad, and it appears that the director has focused only on the action scenes.
"Shah Rukh was nowhere close to Amitabh Bachchan, especially in the Khai ke panBanareswala number. I felt like closing my eyes and visualising how Amitabh had done the dance scene," Annie Mathew, a young professional working in Singapore, told IANS.
"Shah Rukh was not at all exuding confidence. Maybe he should not do remakes any more. It seems to make him extra conscious," added Mathew, who got tickets easily for the film on the fourth day.
"In terms of style the original Don was more stylish, despite this film being more technically advanced. It had a better script and cast. Amitabh had more style compared to Shah Rukh. Each character stood out in the cast," said Arundhati Chowdhury, a radio journalist.