'How's the josh?' At one point in Fighter, a character in the film takes a cure from Uri: The Surgical Strike and recalls its most famous dialogue. 'Not so great!' is what we want to say after seeing the film's underwhelming performance in its first week. Fighter started off better than decent in the opening weekend but crashed badly on its first Monday, doing no better on the next day as well. The film was supposed to be Bollywood's first major blockbuster of 2024, going by the track record of Siddharth Anand, who was fresh off the blockbuster success of Pathaan. Fighter Box Office Hit or Flop: Hrithik Roshan-Deepika Padukone's Film Sees MAJOR Decline on First Monday; Is Siddharth Anand-Directorial Heading Towards Disappointment?

Despite starring big names like Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone, and Anil Kapoor, and featuring promising aerial action, Fighter is not performing as per expectations, shocking all involved, and even the trade pundits. For a film that is made on a budget of reportedly Rs 260 crore, trade is now predicting a lifetime domestic business of Rs 180 crore at best, though the movie is doing better overseas. At the time of writing this article, Fighter had grossed Rs 143.35 crore in India in seven days (as per Bollywood Hungama).

But should the underperformance of Fighter really come as a shock to us? There were signs pre and post-release that the new Republic Day offering may not be as big a hit as some expected it to be. Let's see what they were...

Top Gun? Or Uri?

A Still From Fighter

Let's start with the problem in the film itself, which was also evident in Fighter's promotional strategies. The teaser reminded people of Top Gun, the trailer gave people Uri and Gadar vibes. The final product itself was trying to do this balancing act of being a Top Gun-like film with good aerial action scenes and a hero's journey to get back to being the 'maverick' after exorcising his guilt, and Uri: The Surgical Strike, with its bombastic anti-Pak sentiments and a climax where the hero goes in hand-to-hand combat with the villain while mouthing gallery-pleasing dialogues. This amalgamation may have worked if the writing was good, but in Fighter, it creates an uneven tone, not helped by the fact that some may connect with the jingoism served but not have an emotional connection with most of the characters.

Not Exactly The Masala Entertainer to Rule Over Masses

A Still From Fighter

Then, there is an argument that the general audience in India is not a fan of aerial action films. I may agree with them, but the problem is we don't have a good benchmark to make that point valid. Fighter is the most prolific in Bollywood when it comes to aerial action films, followed by Tejas, but TBH, while Kangana-starrer is very bad, Hrithik Roshan's movie is an uneven film. Also, despite the bombastic dialogues, Fighter lacked the mass appeal that Pathaan served or the dynamic appeal that War had when it pitted Tiger Shroff against Hrithik. It is simply not a Pan-India film that could have earned it big bucks in the long run. Let's agree that unless we send Sunny Deol back to Pakistan again for Gadar 3, people are a bit tired of all the Pakistan-bashing films. See what also happened to Tiger 3. Tiger 3 Movie Review: Not Even Shah Rukh Khan's Pathaan Cameo Can Save Salman Khan-Katrina Kaif's Dullest Entry Into YRF Spy Universe.

Needed That One Chartbuster (Or Controversy)!

A Still From Fighter

We can't deny that the songs played a major factor in elevating the success of Pathaan. "Jhoome Jo Pathaan" was an instant chartbuster that ruled among the masses and the classes. "Besharam Rang," while a musical hit, helped Pathaan in another manner - Deepika's orange bikini created such a furore that the controversy actually helped boost Pathaan's visibility among the masses. Fighter had decent songs, but "Sher Khul Gaye" didn't have the massy zing that could keep the film alive in people's conversations before release. Despite Hrithik and Anand going from place to place to promote the film, Fighter just didn't have the hysteric buzz that Sid's previous movie had. Imagine Pathaan did that without any pre-release promotions unless you count SRK's #AskSRK sessions on X.

Mixed Critical and Audience Response

A Still From Fighter

While Fighter did get praised for the aerial action scenes and Hrithik Roshan's performance, the movie itself received mixed reviews from critics, mostly for the reasons we mentioned in the second point. Movies like Animal have shown that (legit) critics' opinions matter little if the masses have embraced them, no matter how problematic, but Fighter, with no controversy to amp it up to being in the headlines, has no such luck. Fighter Movie Review: Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone's Aerial Actioner Gets Grounded By Its Generic Storytelling Beats.

History of War Films

A Still From Lakshya

In 1997, JP Dutta created history with Border, a multi-starrer based on the 1972 Indo-Pak war that was a major blockbuster. However, the genre has not seen much luck since then. Movies like LOC-Kargil, Tango Charlie, Lakshya (also starring Hrithik Roshan), 1971, The Ghazi Attack, and even the recent Sam Bahadur and Tejas didn't set the box office on fire. The only major exception was Uri: The Surgical Strike and the success of the film had a lot to do with its timing (just before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and people still not having recovered from the hurt of the Uri attack), with even the ruling party promoting the film wherever they can. Fighter, despite basing itself around the Pulwama terrorist attack, just continues the box office curse associated with the genre.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 01, 2024 03:00 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).