Why Did Kabir Khan’s Much-Touted ’83 Underperform So Drastically At The Boxoffice? Trade Experts Kick In

Blame it on  the  Covid. Or the fact that in hindsight the film looks like  a documentary instead  of a feature film. But Kabir Khan’s highly regarded  sports film ’83  which was made at an estimated  cost of Rs 270  crores, stands to lose over  150 crores at  the  boxoffice.

One of the film’s producers who wishes to go unnamed  says it’s futile and self-defeating to   play the  blame game.  “Why blame the Covid resurgence? Even with  the threat  of the  third wave, audiences flocked to see Spiderman and  the Telugu film Pushpa. No. If they wanted to see  ’83 they would have come. But  they didn’t. And the main reason for this  is the youngsters couldn’t connect with the euphoria   of  the  1983 World Cup victory. For  people who were witness  to the  victory the  film  was like  a documentary. They knew everything that they saw in the film from before.So we  lost audiences both ways.”

Producer Ajay Rai who had tremendous success with his  OTT series Tabbar  in 2021, feels the film’s brilliance  cannot be undermined  by its  boxoffice performance.  “Whatever its boxoffice performance—and let’s not  forget ’83  was released  when the  third wave of the pandemic was around the corner—the film is  as brilliant as Lagaan, that other cricket masterpiece. A film’s quality cannot be judged against its boxoffice performance.Even today we talk about Guru Dutt’s Kagaz Ke Phool and  Raj Kapoor’s Mera Naam  Joker which were declared flops when released.”

Says trade guru Taran Adarsh, “There’s no denying the fact that 83 is an extremely well-made film, but, unfortunately, the praise, the accolades, the critical acclaim and the strong word of mouth hasn’t translated or converted into footfalls. The film has worked at select metros, that too at premium multiplexes. Outside metros and especially at smaller centres/mass belt, the film has not found acceptance. The expected numbers are missing.One of the reasons could be that people found it to be a docudrama. It appealed more to the big city audience, the mass belt just did not take to it. Especially the youth and those who relish masala fares.83 has it all — it was very well made with strong emotions as its USP. The release period was most appropriate too. Christmas and New Year celebrations are one of the most lucrative periods as far as movie business is concerned. Unfortunately, 83 did not take off the way it should have. PUSHPA and SPIDERMAN, released one week before, continued to pose stiff opposition to 83 in mass belt and metros, respectively. The moviegoers felt these two films were better alternatives than 83.Sad but true.”

Film critic Raja Sen feels  ’83 did not offer enough incentive for theatre attendance . “It is becoming increasingly clear that people will only go to theatres for an experience they cannot get at home. They went for Spider-Man No Way Home because that was a beloved film offering larger than life movie magic. Even the people curious about 83 are willing to wait a few weeks and watch it on a streaming platform. That’s the difference.

Producer and trade analyst Girish Johar adds, “It’s very easy to dismiss in hindsight but yes ,with 83 majority of the critics went wrong. Films are very subjective experiences and  the easy way out is to go with the flow, that’s what hampered majorly. Personally, after watching the film, I  felt the film is more of sports docu-drama and  not as an entertaining film. Apart from Ranveer Singh, who was towering in the film, there was no character development of any of the actors which could connect. Yes, winning the 83 World Cup is a fond memory for all but again the youth couldn’t connect nor relate to the film. And the youth constitutes a majority of our box office tickets. Also the marketing, though  wide  was not focussed. Showcasing fights over cinema screens, distribution delays in advance booking opens further aggravated the matter. High ticket-prices was a major concern too. Using bullish media reviews days in advance  of  the  release, pumping expectations of the audiences, which when they actually saw the film was  no match, that too hit the sentiments  over the end-product. Finally, I feel that the budget was too high for this kind of vision. Had the budget been  half  of what it is, it would have been a winner, despite all of the above and  despite the pandemic.”

Trade  analyst Atul Mohan feels there is no clear-cut answer to why  ’83  underperformed. “Nobody can answer this question.Everybody may come up with one theory or the other but why the audience rejected this modern-day classic nobody will be able to figure out. Maybe the audience wanted entertainment and that quotient was missing here. But one thing is for sure: the high ticket pricing in today’s times did keep a lot of people away from watching the film on the big screen .As we all know all films are available on some streaming platform in 4 weeks time.”

Producer  Suneel Darshan adds, “There are several reasons attributed to a movie’s failure but this time ’83’s debacle is because of its docu-drama genre, and  timing its release so close to Spiderman and  more so Pushpa which have collectively snatched away Rs.100 crore of box-office takings in their second week, proved fatal for  ’83.”

Akshay Rathi   “There are  multiple reasons why  ’83 didn’t do that well. One  was the whole notion of the the third wave of   the Pandemic coinciding with the release  of ’83. Secondly,  in terms of the  drama and storytelling possibly catered to  a more urbane audience. The average  Indian audience wanted to see a far more basic and accessible film. However  nothing can take away from  the fact that  it is a brilliantly made  film. It’s  a film that will  go down in the history of Indian cinema  for  so fabulously recreating the golden moment of cricket history.Nothing can take away  from that.”

Amen.