Simmba Box Office Prediction by Bobby, will it be a HIT or FLOP? Guest Post!

Guest Post is written by Bobby Sidhu. 
You can follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BobbyS_BO

Simmba has been keenly awaited for several reasons. One, it marks the first-time combination of director Rohit Shetty with Ranveer Singh. Rohit Shetty is one of the most successful filmmakers in India, and Ranveer Singh is one of the top young stars. Both have tons of momentum behind them with recent Blockbusters Golmaal Again and Padmaavat, respectively. It’s a strange twist of fate that the same Ranveer Singh, who’s film Bajirao Mastani defeated the Rohit Shetty-SRK film Dilwale at the box office in 2015 now has Rohit Shetty on his side releasing a film one week after SRK’s Zero! 

On top of that, there is Sara Ali Khan who has been creating waves for all the right reasons. Personally, I didn’t give too much attention to the fact that she was debuting until I watched her episode on Koffee with Karan. Not only did she look stunning, but the way she carried herself was attention-grabbing. Her debut film, Kedarnath, has also turned out to be a mild success at the box office. 

Without any doubt, expectations from Simmba are huge!

Now, the analysis. The theatrical trailer of the film was released in the beginning of this month, and the response to the trailer was extremely mixed: some people loved it, while others thought it was very poor. There were a few things that were alarming. Firstly, the storyline: a done-to-death outdated rape storyline involving cops and the bad guys. The storyline and presentation is such that it appears the film would not have much to offer to the multiplex audience: the appreciation will be limited mostly to single screen/mass centre audience.  The second problem was of Ranveer Singh as a cop. It seems to be of general consensus that the stars from the 90s such as Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, and Ajay Devgan pull of the role of the macho policeman the best. Their films Dabangg, Rowdy Rathore, and the Singham series are proof of that, as all were major hits at the box office. As a matter of fact, any of the young stars who have tried to veer towards the desi masala film space have found it difficult at the box office. The two biggest examples I can think of are ShahidKapoor’s Phata Poster Nikla Hero and Ranbir Kapoor’s Besharam, both of which sank without a trace at the box office! Thirdly, the ending of the trailer: Simmba (Ranveer Singh), who has been slowly built up throughout the trailer as a policeman looking for revenge, is suddenly shown tied up by the bad guys, while Singham (Ajay Devgan), who is not even supposed to be a central part of the film, arrives to help out Simmba! The truth is, Ranveer Singh as a hero has been made to look like a joke in that sequence, and it will only serve to disappoint his fans!

Next, the Aankh Maarey song. Not much needs to be said here, as the song is a huge chartbuster, even though there seems to be a section of the audience as well that seems to have not embraced this song completely. This section appears to be more of the class audience. Again, some here were of the opinion that it was the cameo of Arshad Warsi that stole the show in the song, which again makes one question Rohit Shetty’s presentation of his lead hero in this film. 

The Tere Bin song promo was released and got a mixed response. While watching the song, it shocked me to see how much of a carbon copy Ranveer Singh appeared to be of Ajay Devgan in terms of acting style! Again, I wouldn’t say this is completely a fault of Ranveer, but rather on the director who seems very determined to stay in his Ajay Devgan/Singham zone. 

Lastly, the Aala Re Aala song promo was released and got a very poor response. The problem with this song promo was that it seems to be stuck in the year 2012 or so. Dabangg, Singham, Khiladi 786…..all of the action masala films from the early part of this decade come to mind while watching this outdated song promo. 

At the risk of sounding negative, the whole film appears to be a joke. There is a very cartoonish vibe to the film, almost as if the makers weren’t very serious about the making of this film. Karan Johar appears in the beginning of the Aankh Maarey song and says “oh God, one more remake!” Also, the film just seems like an advertisement for the next installments of the Golmaal and Singham franchises. 

To be honest, Simmba has been an interesting case study to analyze. There are many people who are excited to see the film. There are many people who do not want to see the film, many opining that they have already seen the original Telugu film Temper. There are those who have liked the promos. There are those who have disliked the promos. All factors considered, I feel that Simmba will have mixed public word of mouth: the audience at single screens and mass centres will appreciate the film, whereas the city audience and those frequenting bigger multiplexes will reject the film!The holiday period will give a boost to the film’s collections.

With that said, Simmba will be a bigger grosser than Zero, which is already exhausting its run and will likely finish with lifetime collections in the 90 crore nett range. 

My Box Office Predictions for Simmba:

Opening Day: 12 crore nett

Opening Weekend: 40 crore nett

Lifetime Collections: 102 crore nett

Overall Verdict: Semi-Hit 

As always, you can follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BobbyS_BO.