'Cinemas not shutting down anytime soon.' In run-up to ‘Pathaan’, SRK says craze for OTT just a phase

Shah Rukh Khan is gearing up for a grand comeback to the silver screen. His new movie ‘Pathaan’ is an out-and-out masala action thriller, that promises to be a complete ‘paisa-vasool’ (money's worth) entertainer for the audience. It seems to have every ingredient necessary for a crowd-puller, an A-list star cast, foot-tapping music, and edge-of-the-seat action sequences, not to mention the huge buzz, since it is SRK’s comeback film after five years. However, there is still a whiff of apprehension in the air. A sense of foreboding.

Bollywood is not what it used to be. Especially in 2022, with the disastrous performance of high-budget movies like ‘Vikram Vedha’, ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ ‘Shamshera’ and others, there is a sense of disillusionment regarding Bollywood movies both in the minds of audiences as well as the producers.

Since the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the meteoric rise of OTT platforms like Netflix, Hotstar, etc, public enthusiasm for watching movies in the theatres seems to be at an all-time low.

However, King Khan feels ‘picture abhi bhi baaki hai mere dost!’ (there is still more to come, my friend)

In an interview with Variety, Khan said he is confident that the movie-going audience is not going anywhere. He said that every once or so people predict that people will stop watching films in theatres due to some technical innovation, but they have proven to be wrong. “Cinema viewing is not going to shut down anytime soon, because I have been through these phases, television coming in, ‘oh nobody’s watching movies,’ VCR coming in, ‘Nobody’s watching movies. It’s been 32 years, I have seen it through. Yes, there’s always a dent, and there’s a bit of a problem, but cinema changes itself, and then comes back and invites people in hordes.”

The ‘Dilwale Dulhania le Jayenge’ star then added that some “films will find their space at the box-office and some will find space on streaming platforms, and some will stick to television.”

Directed by Siddharth Anand, ‘Pathaan’ will have a starry cast led by Khan. He will be accompanied by Deepika Padukone and John Abraham. The action thriller will hit the theatres on January 25, 2023.