By Nidhi Nagpal
You either hate him or you love him, but you can’t ignore him. Yes! I am talking about controversy’s favourite child Mr Salman Khan. Television, theatres, social media all are buzzing with the larger than life and magnified trailers of saviour Sallu bashing up hundreds of goons together like ‘the Rajnikant of Bollywood’ in this year’s most awaited release Jai Ho! Salman Khan will be seen taking law in his hands and declaring justice. We have seen him doing the same thing a hundred times before. SUPER MONTONOUS INDEED!! The trailer looks like a replica of the story of Garv, action of Dabangg, style of Readyy and romance of Ek tha Tiger. Same style, same genre, same action= SALMAN KHAN. Trade analysts, movie critics have their own predictions on how it will fare at the box office but my predictions are largely based on the controversies he has been trapped into recently. Let me enlighten you with my observations.
REASONS WHY JAI HO CAN BE A MISS:
- SALMAN KHAN’S “BIASED BEHAVIOUR” IN BIGG BOSS 7- Every weekend ka wow turned into a nightmare for the BB-7 viewers as Salman Khan indulged in favouritism towards contestants Tanisha Mukherjee & Arman Kohli. Also, he left no stone unturned to portray contestants Kushal Tandon and Gauhar Khan in a negative light and passing it off as a public opinion. As the host of the show he was not expected to play games with the contestants by misleading them, misguiding them, misinforming them & making personal judgements against them. He even resorted to insulting and bullying the contestants. Owing to his industry friendship and bond with Ajay Devgan which led him to take Tanisha’s side, by the mid of season 7, he managed to earn the title of “unfair Salman” on Facebook and Twitter and the word spread like fire.
- “JANUARY 24: BOYCOTT JAI HO, STAY AT HOME” was a tweet by an angered Salman fan. His partiality disappointed his fans to the core and they retorted by saying “Remember, what made you can break you.” A page on Facebook titled “unfair Salman” had the following display picture. This picture clearly depicts how deeply people have been hurt by Salman’s gestures on the show and it’s their turn to retaliate to his arrogance & attitude by boycotting his movie. In short, public ki JAI ho !
- TITLE IN CONTROVERSY: AR Rahman’s lawyer says that the title “Jai Ho” cannot be used for the Sohail Khan Film because ARR registered the trademark soon after the Oscars and has even planned to make a film with the title.
Mumbai mirror reports that ARR’s counsel got in touch with Sohail Khan on the matter, and said that since the parties concerned ( Sohail and Salman ) are “well-known” to Rahman, the matter is being dealt with “normal course of action”.
- SAIFAI CONTROVERSY: JAI HO landed into yet another political controversy just a few weeks before its release. Members of Youth initiative for Peace and Harmony (YIPH), decided to boycott JAI HO. Recently Salman took part in a musical extravaganza in Saifai, village of Samajwadi party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, in Uttar Pradesh. Group opined that it is a pity that the Bollywood stars took part in a show in the village, even when the UP government is not doing enough to help the victims of the communal riots in Muzaffarnagar. They also said that movie stars should show “some sensitivity to human values”. The film fraternity defended Salman by saying that people hammer on such stars because they are soft targets and an easy medium to earn publicity. I second that. When any superstar’s movie is on the threshold of being released, such gimmicks are bound to happen. After all, cheap publicity is available for free.
REASONS WHY JAI HO CAN STILL BE A HIT:
- Salman Khan will be seen on the big screen after a gap of one year. Amidst all these controversies his fans are still very much excited to watch him. So it won’t be a shock if the film breaks all the 100-200 crores records.
- The first look of Jai Ho garnered tremendous responses on YouTube like-
“Brace yourselves, Salman is coming.”
“ Baaki sab BAKWAAS hai, Salman FIRST CLASS hai”.
Thus anticipating the eagerness & joyousness of his fans. No doubt it can be touted as a big hit.
- Salman understands the “recipe to success”. Going by his past records, he knows how his audience wants to see him on screen & therefore his movies are a mixed dose of action, romance and drama- full PAISA VASOOL. Jai Ho seems to be on similar lines, thus attracting his loyal fan base to go gaga over the movie.
- Salman has adopted a more ‘inclusive’ method of marketing his film. The first look poster of Jai Ho was actually made by his fan. Tweeting and promoting fan- made poster is a part of everyone’s promotional drill but Salman’s gesture was way more eye striking. Proclaiming the poster as the first look of the movie, he became a bigger hero in the eyes of his fans.
If indeed Jai Ho breaks box office records, the question still remains whether it will be a piece of meaningful cinema or not? Will Salman be able to win over the critics this time? Only time will tell.
