Did Aamir Khan Make A Mistake By Opening On Diwali Day?

Aamir Khan, the uncrowned Badshah/Sultan  of  the boxoffice has had the poorest ever opening for any of his recent films . Secret Superstar has opened to collections as  low as 15-20 percent  and even lower in  some North Indian sectors.

This  was only to be expected. The Indian moviegoing  public does not favour movie-viewing on Diwali day.
Way back in  2013 the release  of  Rakesh Roshan’s Krissh 3  had been fixed for Diwali Day, Sunday November 3, 2013. However the date was changed  to Monday Novemb​er 4, 2013 when  it was  discovered that  audiences largely stay  away from  movie theatres  on Diwali Day.

So was it a mistake  to release Secret Superstar  on Diwali day?

Trade pundit Taran Adarh feels perhaps releasing on  Diwali day is  a mistake. “Expectedly, Secret Superstar has started slow… Exactly likeTaare ZameenPar (2007). But word of mouth is super-strong.Although biz is generally low on Diwali day, Aamir’s decision to release Secret Superstar on Diwali day itself did raise eyebrows…But look at the larger picture. Now, word of mouth will come into play from Fri onwards, not Sat [like it happens generally].Biz will multiply on Sat-Sun.”

Says trade expert Komal Nahata, “Not at all a mistake. Aamir was aware that it would not open strong. But the strong word-of-mouth ofThursday will propel collections to grow from Friday. So it was a very clever and well-planned release strategy by Aamir. Plus, he was not aiming to break first-day records or even create a record as such a content-driven film with low face-value can never do that. But what such a film can do, and in this case WILL DO is that it can and will break records after the  first day.”

Trade  analyst Atul Mohan agrees with Komal Nahata, “Diwali is always huge and even an average film does good business. The business is slow on the day of Diwali always and next day after Diwali witnesses big jump. It’s too early to comment on Secret Superstar . The real test begins from Friday when audience will throng cinema halls. Lets wait and watch”

Trade  analyst Amod Mehra feels the Thursday release has damaged the  films’s  prospects.  “Plus, there are too many shows of Secret Superstar,” opines Mehra.

A  big jump in the collections is  expected from Day 2 in the collections of Secret Superstar. Nonetheless this will go down in Aamir’s resume  as  one  of  the lowest  openers  of his career.