Shah Rukh Khan's Jab Harry Met Sejal Set To Have A Lower Week One Than Kaabil - Will Rakesh Roshan Have The Final Laugh?

by Joginder Tuteja

The verdict is out - Jab Harry Met Sejal is set to be a Box Office disaster for Shah Rukh Khan. The fact that it couldn't take a major opening and then there was no growth whatsoever over the weekend pretty much sealed the fate for the Imtiaz Ali directed film that has a huge budget to recover through its theatrical run.

With just 45.75 crore coming over the weekend, not just has the film collected lowest three day number for Shah Rukh Khan since the likes of Don 2 and Ra. One, it has also fared quite averagely when compared to the other biggies of 2017. The collections are lesser than even Jolly LLB 2 [50.46 crore] and have just about managed to edge past Badrinath Ki Dulhania [43.05 crore].

However, the most interesting part about the whole story is here. The collections have been somewhat better than the first three days of Kaabil [38.87 crore] but here is the catch. The Rakesh Roshan-Hrithik Roshan-Sanjay Gupta's revenge drama had arrived on a Wednesday and hence these three days were from Wednesday to Friday. The film's five day numbers (right till Sunday, which includes a proper weekend) were 67.46 crore and that's the number which Jab Harry Met Sejal would actually struggle to achieve in its entire one week run.

So why are we bringing Kaabil here?

Well, that's because for entire two months leading to the release of their film, Roshans were making their disappointment quite clear around Shah Rukh Khan's Raees clashing with them on the same date. The ones who were most vocal were Rakesh Roshan and Sanjay Gupta who wondered loud and clear that why Shah Rukh Khan wanted to bring his biggie Raees alongside their 'small film with a big heart' when as a superstar he could have arrived on any other Friday and still scored big enough.

However, Shah Rukh Khan continued to stick to his 25th January arrival date, hence leaving a bitter taste in the mouth of everyone associated with Kaabil. Of course, Raees won the first day, first weekend and then first week battle when compared to Kaabil. It also went on to have a bigger lifetime too. However, it was Kaabil that saw better reports, audience word of mouth and industry testimonials coming its way, hence managing to sneak past the 100 crore mark despite all the competition.

Which brings one to the present times!

For Jab Harry Met Sejal, Shah Rukh Khan had the best release timing available to his disposal, what with an open weekend followed by the big holiday of Rakhi as well. However, with negative content, reports and word of mouth coming its way, there has hardly been any advantage of the free run. So much so that now - and this is a biggie here - the film would not just finish much lower than the lifetime total of Kaabil, it would even struggle to earn as much in its lifetime as Kaabil did in just its first week [79.60 crore] and that too with a clash with Raees no less!

No wonder, we pretty much believe that Rakesh Roshan could well be having the final laugh!