Rocket Singh – What went wrong?

The opening of Rocket Singh – Salesman of the year, has shocked the trade. But what went wrong, why did the film open to such poor number, given the fact that Ranbir Kapoor’s last film Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani’s opened to huge numbers.

There are also reports that the distributors are quite disturbed about the opening and at the same time angry at the way Yashraj has promoted it.

Aditya Chopra was probably heavily banking on Ranbir’s star power to get him a decent opening and the word-of-mouth to do the rest. Unfortunately, neither was the opening upto the mark, nor was the audience reaction. While critics have lauded the film, calling it the best of the year, those that matter (read audience) have stayed away.

So what went wrong?

  1. Promotion – The movie was promoted poorly and wrongly. Rocket Singh was never meant to be a comedy, yet was promoted as one, which eventually resulted in the audience walking into theaters expecting an extension of Wake Up Sid, Ajab Prem Ki.. and walking out terribly disappointed – which also explains reports of many leaving mid-way.
  2. Music – What worked for Ranbir’s last two films, was great music. Rocket Singh, apart from the little popular Pocket Mein Rocket, suffered from a weak music album.
  3. Expecting a Chak De – The makers were probably over-confident of their product and planned a release similar to Chak De India. But the Shahrukh Khan film, apart from strong content also had mass-appeal, which Rocket Singh clearly lacked.

These days, its the overall packaging along with content that works. With better music, right kind of promotion.. Rocket Singh may well have been Ranbir’s third hit of the year.

Satellite rights et al, Yashraj will easily recover its investment.. but if initial business is anything to go by, its the distributors who will suffer losses.

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19 Comments

  • INDICINE-According to me,rocket singh is genuinely the best movie of the year.Extremely entertainin..Only the climax didn’t work for me.Certainly its the marketing and promotion that went horribly wrong.Makers should hav realised that dis movie doesn’t star a big superstar like Shahrukh to guarantee them the profits.IN BANGALORE MULTIPLEX(70%occupancy) people were actually clapping and whistling at some scenes during rocket corp sales chart..

  • INDICINE-I heard that movie budget inclusive of promotions is 8 crores…how can it b a flop then as acc to boi movie has collected around 10 crores during weekend?

  • Its not the budget that counts, but the price the film has been sold to distributors.. If the distributors don’t recover their investment, its a flop..

    Regarding the budget, its around 5 crores and around 2 crores spent on marketing. Don’t really know the exact budget, Yashraj never disclose it. It was rumored to be around 10 crores (5 crores for making, rest for promotion).. But after the success of Ajab Prem Ki, they slashed their marketing budget down to 2 crores. Which, by the way, Yashraj denied, saying they have different strategies for different films, not every film needs to be well-promoted.

  • RS is kindof documentary flm which audience dont find worth spending on..
    films r meant for huge entertainment…with some story not even a grippin one…
    RS was a ordinary movie and climax made it below average
    even LD n Tasveer suffered due to bad climax..
    though its very early to predict the fate of the movie but i thnk its goin to lose bcoz Avatar is hittin the screen this friday and West Critics hav already declared it as the Path breaking movie with most of them giving 10/10…and is followed up by 3 Idiots.

  • ha ha ha he he ha he he ha ha ha he he….oho oho oho oh …i cant control laughing…my lord/rocket singh also flopped …very very very good….and after kurbaan we all expected this will also flop…you chipmunk retards i told you never give expectations to a rising star…how much you ppl praised this ranbir…now wats up???????his fate will be similar to vivek oberoi…see that!!!!and you critics never come to compare him with senior stars ever again.

  • @ Indicine

    I totally agree with your reasons behind the failure.

    in addition to this, i believe that its the over-all (newly emerged) non-professional appraoch that has unfortunately seeped in the YRF camp during recent few years. I think they are still suffering with a serious “OVER-CONFIDENCE” on their banner’s name.

    Those who have been a YRF fan like me…would agree that we can only feel pity when we remember quality products like Silsila, Kabhi Kabhi, Lamhe, Darr, Veer Zara, DDLJG etc. and then we feel sorry for ourselves when we get substandard products like Lagaa Chunri mein Daagh, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Tashan, Neil ‘n Nikki etc. Except for the brilliant Chak DE and a better “New York” there hasn’t been a single quality product.

    In some cases, they over-look the content and in some case they over-look the marketing aspect (exactly what happened with Rocket). The overall package is being ignored at the production house and I dont know if they are suffering or not…but their fans (read: ex-fans) are deffinitely suffering. As either we get poor films from them or we end up seeing good films being doomed just becasue they were too over-confident.

    I seriously hope that Yash Chopra thakes the control of the reins once again.

  • Praveen: you’re not so matured man.. if you were so you’d hv realized that all the big superstar of bollywood & hollywood hv hit movies plus flop ones.. and that’s nothing to do with the actor’s performance.. it’s the subject, the script, the trailer, the way the movie was promoted.. the director’s name, the production.. everything has a reason for the failure.. and it’s not the actor’s fault because he’s not the maker of the movie.. he just agrees to work in a movie expecting to be a successful one.. Ranbir is a very talented actor.. but he has selected a wrong script and signed for a wrong movie this time..everyone make mistakes.. didn’t u ever make any mistake in yr work.. or u consider yourself as a God.. perfect man who’d never do any mistakes in his job!!I didn’t like yr silly comment.

  • ^ wrong script?? wrong movie??– wen u `ve not watched d movie hw can u say tat..?!?

    It was a gud movie. and pls stop being preachy always.. U cant change this world al by ur own..

  • When years go by, Rocket SIngh will be seen as yet another cult movie that didnt work at the boxoffice…

    Choosing Rocket Singh is a mistake on Ranbir’s part is just like saying that SRK did the same by acting in Swades. I would rather prefer movies like these rather than absolute junk like Ajab Prem & Rab ne :)

  • Bhaiyo aur Behno…Main duniya ke log samjaa-na chahta hoon ke filmi ka matlab “dil behelna hai” isliye to har koi filmi romantic,action,drama,thriller,comedy ya sci-fiction dil behelne ke bina, hosh tez karne ke bina, achchi filmi nahi ho satti, hamein koyi filmi dekhne ke baad hamara antramiya poochna chahiyetha, mujhe yakeen hai ke sahi roshini hamare hosh tikaane mein zaroor aayegi, ke har koi filmi sahi faisla laga karsatte.
    Mera matlab nahi tha, ke ROKET SINGH achchi film nahi hai, balki dekhaana chahtahoon, ke agar har koi filmi audience ke dil nahi behel satti, woh filmi achchi nahi ho satti chahe jitni achchi woh filmi ban satti.

  • I agree with the causes given by Indicine team.Personally,I feel this is an outcome of the hype that media
    has created around Ranbir as the “next big thing” that made the makers over-confident.Ranbir is no doubt
    a powerful actor,but i think he still lacks the mass appeal.Wake up Sid was also not a good starter but
    later picked up because of word of mouth and good music.Ajab Prem was a massy comedy with great songs
    and we all know such comedy films work best in Bollywood.So,I don’t think the above films worked due to
    the so-called “Ranbir-mania”.Rocket Singh was the first test and Ranbir failed to draw the audience.Media
    should realize that the star they are raising a hype about has given 1 hit,1 average and 3 flops in his career
    of 5 films.

  • @ Kanishka
    da most sensible comment on dis thread.
    IMO Ranbir is projected as a star dat can do no wrong.
    (am not a SRK fan but admire hiz acting) people were comparing RK wid SRK. WAKE UP FOR GODS SAKE.
    den indicine post a thread bout RK wanting to be like Hrithik. (another joke).
    before people start thinkin dat am anti-RK am not. i enjoyed WUS and i went to watch APKGK.

    p.s. FACT- APKGK worked mainly due to Kat in England dat iz. so many people who claim to dislike Bollywood films just go watch films dat star Kat.

  • I agree with the people that say that it was because of YRF overconfidence. Also the media were comparing Ranbir to every big actor like SRK for example. I couldn’t stop laughing hearing that Ranbir is the new super star and has more fans than Shahrukh. Also now they are comparing him to Hrithik Roshan. Come on media wake up!!!! Just cuz Ranbir is the most successful out of the newcomers that came along with him doesn’t mean that hes THE NEXT BIG THING and has that much talent or potential to be compared to actors like Shahrukh Khan or Hrithik Roshan.

  • are are ..yeh kya hua hua.. ??? people didnt like the movie??? oh oh..!!! ranbir failed to entertain this time??? perhaps didnt like him in the beard eh??? but why dont you all take your entire family and relatives and spend your entire monthe salary on this movie>>> the makers will be happy.. the movie will be a hit.. all will be happy…the fans and the reviewrs here and our friends fro middle east especially where it must be running to packed houses ..w ith rightr from 6 to 60 having a blast.. for me it is a super duper hit ..

  • and somebody please support ranbir dear.. he is so depressed nowadays.. please tell him this is not the end of the world… please tell him to go and see paa for the rejuvenating effect auro will have on him… after watching paa he will come out thoroughly entertained having laughed and cried ..he will forget this debacle…hota hai..but after he sees the two most charismatic movies of our times namely de danadan and paa he will becoome hysterically better and reach nirvana from gloomdoom…
    and mind you he must see paa 50 times atleast for the therapy to work.. the songs ..vidya balan abhishek and lastly big b ka effect.. will take some time.. but im sure he will come out of the shell.. his parents too will come out of this shock…wonder how many crores this movie will ultimately make??? i hope YRF will not have to sell off their house??? im very worried yaar..

  • rocket singh best movie hai but aisa hai dumbass public ko creativity nhi wahi purana masala chhaiye again n again lol wake up sid and rocket singh ranbeer ke career me imp role play karegi

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