TOH Fiasco: Aamir Khan - an actor or a marketer

Aamir Khan, a few days ago at an event Cinestaan India's Storytellers Contest, said that he took full responsibility for the movie Thugs Of Hindostan not working with the audience. Many may view the actor as being humble to accept the setback of the movie, but Aamir being an ace marketer may be trying to portray leadership skills of taking responsibility for failures and giving credit for the success to the team thereby trying to bypass the hit which the brand “Aamir Khan” has taken by the tanking of TOH, after all he has more films to make and act in.

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Aamir is known for roles which connects him deeply to public emotions be it Three Idiots, Dangal or Secret Superstars and each of these movies have a greater contribution of fellow actors than Aamir himself be it Chatur of Three Idiots, Sakshi of Dangal or Zaira Wasim of Secret Superstars, therefore as far as acting skills are concerned, Aamir seems to be at par with general commercial actor and not league apart. His acting may not be as intense as that of Irfan Khan, Boman Irani, Anupam Kher or Nawazuddin Siddiqui but his choice of script and the character is so perfect that he walks away with most of the applause. Therefore, it’s the plot and character which does all the wonders and this has only been proven by the tanking of TOH.

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The day the TOH trailer was released on YouTube, the general perception became evident that it was a copy of the Pirates of Caribbean with Aamir’s acting resembling the acts of Captain Jack sparrow. An Indian connect had been tried to force fit by relating it with the Indian freedom struggle. Mostly, likely not even a school-going kid would have studied that sea pirates fought in the Independence struggle, albeit there are chances that the present generations might have heard about Mangal Pandey, Rani of Jhansi or dacoits of Chambal, but pirates of sea – surprising, so there’s a factual inaccuracy. On the other hand, there’s the movie Bahubali, which immediately connected with the audience as the plot centered around characters of King and Queens of ancient India which every Indian could relate to.

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TOH had good CGI works but had over dramatised scenes and lengthy screen plays, predictable plot, forced comedy and un-relatable geographical displays. The only breather was Big B whose mere presence made the movie come alive. Well-taking of the girls Katrina Kaif and Fatima Sana Shaikh could have been better utilised but if one was looking for entertainment, the movie clearly missed the mark.
The Thugs Of Hindostan was one the costliest movies ever made and with the high profile star cast it was expected to ring in good profits which didn’t happen, leaving theatre owners at a loss.

The question is, if the product is faulty, shouldn’t the consumer be compensated? As per reports, Aamir’s next assignment could be the Mahabharata which is likely to be a web-series but will the mammoth expectations from him be addressed, time will tell.