Pathaan, fan clubs, and single screens

From about 10,000 over a decade back, India is now down to about 8,700 screens

Does Pathaan turn the whole rationale of marketing films on its head? Will it help revive single screens?

Those are the two questions the success of Siddharth Anand ’s Pathaan (Yashraj Films), which released on January 25, throws up. The Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) starrer is now well on its way to becoming one of the biggest hits in Indian cinema, with close to Rs 1,000 crore in worldwide gross, so far. Khan, who’d withdrawn from the big screen for over four years, is clearly back with a bang.

The numbers are more astounding if you know that unlike every other Yashraj