Shahid Kapoor's Haider: Decoding Success Of The Vishal Bhardwaj Film

MUMBAI: Shahid Kapoor-starrer “Haider” – a modern-day adaptation of “Hamlet” with Kashmir as its backdrop — has achieved many milestones. It has become the first Kashmir-based film in many years to click with the audience, acclaimed director Vishal Bhardwaj’s first golden goose, and has reportedly been declared the fifth highest-rated crime drama of all times. Bravo!

The adaptation of William Shakespeare’s tragedy, which is centred on a young man whose life is destroyed by fate, has not only crossed the 50-crore mark, but the 22-crore film has recovered its cost and is still counting. Bhardwaj co-produced the film with UTV. But the success of “Haider”, where sufferings in the Kashmir Valley seethe through each frame, makes one wonder why a non-formulaic drama sans any fluff is flying so high at the box office?

Trade analysts say content and word of mouth have done wonders for “Haider”, catapulting it into a gold spinner. Also, the way Bhardwaj has merged the Shakespearean tragedy with the political conflict, it resonated with the audience, they said. Punit Sahay, senior manager programming and operations, Spice Cinemas, admits that the film’s box office performance has defied the general perception about the movie.

“People didn’t expect it to do well because it’s for a specific audience. But the word-of-mouth is really strong. Now, most people are going for ‘Haider’ first and ‘Bang Bang!’ later. I’ve spoken to a few people after watching the movie, and they said that the performance was really good — something that they were not expecting from Shahid Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor. And people generally like Vishal Bhardwaj’s films. He makes good movies,” Sahay told.
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