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It has been a relatively slow year for Bollywood with muffed fireworks, so one will be forgiven if they haven’t paid attention to the most obvious, consistent pattern in the last 13 months: the rise and rise of Hindi cinema’s newest Mr Dependable, Vicky Kaushal. The actor, who rose to prominence a decade ago with a poignant part in Masaan, has been on a golden run so silently that it can be easily overlooked, a box office climb so undercover it can be assumed harmless and a fanbase so wonderfully spread out, it can be surprising. Vicky Kaushal creates a spectacle when he dances, for he has the moves; but what gives him an edge today is that he also has the box office.
His latest release, Bad Newz, has put Vicky Kaushal in the most rewarding position of his career and assured him of the audience’s trust. The Karan Johar-backed comedy drama minted Rs 8.62 crore on its opening day, the highest ever Friday for Vicky so far. But a better picture emerges when one analyses the opening day collections of his last few films, because the marker for any kind of stardom or popularity is what an actor manages to pull in on day one, before reviews start circulating. It is here that Vicky Kaushal has been on a constant rise.
His December 2023 release Sam Bahadur clashed with the mighty Ranbir Kapoor starrer Animal and opened at Rs 5.75 cr. It was a rather impressive figure, for the film saw a face-off with possibly one of the most awaited releases of last year, which benefited from a star actor, a star director and a chartbuster music. Yet, Sam Bahadur stood its ground. Similarly, the same year, it was Vicky Kaushal’s romantic-comedy Zara Hatke Zara Bachke which opened at Rs 5.49 cr, with a promotional campaign of less than 20 days. All it had was chartbuster music, aided with the pairing of Vicky and Sara Ali Khan.
Pre-pandemic, the only time Vicky Kaushal managed to clock an opening of Rs 8 crore was with the actioner Uri: The Surgical Strike but Bad Newz did better. It is significant milestone for Vicky, which proves how the actor has consistently delivered and opened films in the shadows of potential blockbusters like Animal, with a non-lucrative genre like a biopic, in a short campaign like that of Zara Hatke Zara Bachke and, in the case of Bad Newz, with a trailer and just one music video.
Days leading up to the release of Bad Newz, it was evident that film’s driving material for the campaign was majorly just Vicky Kaushal dancing. The actor’s sensational moves in the chartbuster Tauba Tauba led to instant virality. Despite the presence of Triptii Dimri, fresh off the mega success as “Bhabhi 2” in Animal, it was Vicky who glided through the campaign with his dance, being a talking point at every event, dance clubs and on Instagram Reels.
The numbers of Bad Newz will truly show their power when viewed in comparison to what Dharma Productions own film, Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani did last year. With a bigger cast led by Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt, directed by Karan Johar, seasoned actors like Jaya Bachchan, Dharmendra and Shabana Azmi in the mix and Pritam’s music, the film still opened just 3 cr more than Bad Newz. Which is where Vicky Kaushal’s rise is as much in the content as it is in the context.
Vicky Kaushal is currently seen in Bad Newz. (Photo: Vicky Kaushal/Instagram)
Unlike most of the stars of his generation, Vicky Kaushal wasn’t gifted with leading production houses backing him in projects. He was never given the star mounting, so was never packaged as the leading hero, which goes a long way in cementing one’s perception. Bhoot – Part One: The Haunted Ship was the first Dharma Productions film he did in 2020, but a genre which never makes anyone a superstar. Still, he opened the film at Rs 5 crore. The next by Karan Johar, the headache-inducing Govinda Naam Mera, went straight to OTT, as did one of his most celebrated works of recent times, Sardar Udham.
With the exception of Zubaan in 2015, an anomaly in his career, Vicky bagged his first solo-lead film only in 2019 with Uri The Surgical Strike. But what led to the Adity Dhar film were a series of incredible performances, colloquially dubbed as ‘supporting’ roles, which more or less made Vicky Kaushal the star performer to watch out for. He flipped his deeply sensitive Masaan performance to a menacing outing in Raman Raghav 2.0; he was the on-screen green flag in Alia Bhatt led Raazi, the best friend to bank on in Ranbir Kapoor’s Sanju and the irresponsible man child in Manmarziyaan. Next up, he was a Major of Para (Special Forces), leading a retaliation to the 2016 Uri attack.
It is Vicky’s choices in the past, the non-box office wonders like Masaan and Manmarziyaan and also the hit Raazi which helped establish a credible base for the actor. The films he has opened post-pandemic–with the exception of Yash Raj Film’s The Great Indian Family which was just silently dumped in theatres and bombed at the box office–have not received unanimous acclaim. At best, they have been mixed, but Vicky has almost always been one of the major highlights in all, his performance single handedly grounding a shaky narrative.
Which is why Vicky Kaushal now finds himself in the most rewarding phase of his career, where it is clear that he has won over a dedicated audience base, which will put in that faith and ticket money, if they are promised something exciting. That also makes him in a better box office situation than most in his league, who will deliver only when it is a big actioner or a franchise film. Vicky Kaushal is, for now, playing to his strengths: Selecting exciting films, being dubbed as the internet’s green flag husband, steadily getting comfortable with rewarding box office numbers and taking ownership of his films. There is no Tauba Tauba here, Vicky Kaushal is going all out.
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