A year ago this question would never have made it to any Bollywood producer's thought process, but the time has come to think about it - just how bankable is Kareena Kapoor?Like Akshay Kumar, Kareena has doled out flop after flop from mid 2007 all the way to the end of 2009. Sample these films - Tashan, Golmaal Returns, Kambakkht Ishq, Mai aur Mrs Khanna, Kurbaan - they all bombed at the box office.
Some might say Golmaal and KIshq made decent money, but what about the ROI? Making the money back doesn't mean the film is a hit, it simply means it flopped. What's more, the films where she 'guest appeared' in, 'Halla Bol', 'Luck by Chance' and 'Billu' all nosedived as well. To add to it, no one even watched 'Roadside Romeo', the animated film that she provided her voice for.
So what is going wrong? Are these bad films? To some extent, yes. 'Golmaal 2' and 'KIshq' were atrocious, one would have to be a lunatic to assume those would be hits with today's sophisticated junta. 'Mai aur Mrs Khanna' was terrible as well, with its flimsy script and half-baked premise. But what about the 'Saifeena' moniker?
Bollywood promotes the Saif-Kareena jodi like its the best thing since sliced bread. Remember the vomitous 'Tashan'? That film was made to only cash in on the new buzz of the 'hot' Saif-Kareena jodi. 'Roadside Romeo' had the duo for the same reason. The same goes for the recent dud 'Kurbaan'. And what happened? It turns out only a few people are interested in watching 'Saifeena' on screen, the rest need a decent entertainment product for the hundreds of Rupees they pay for at multiplexes. 'Tashan' was unwatchable, and 'Romeo' was underwhelming. 'Kurbaan' was not so bad, but it was shoddy and had too many plotholes to make for a serious drama pitched in as a film with a lot of attention to detail. Even the excellent soundtrack of 'Kurbaan' couldn't pull in audiences. Is marketing to blame here? Hell no! 'Saifeena' films are given humongous promotions.
'Tashan' posters were everywhere, and you can't possibly forget the bare-back poster from 'Kurbaan' which made its way to every nook and corner of the country. The MNS even helped with the film's promotion by creating a big fuss over the alleged 'nudity' in it. Remember the bikini scene in 'Tashan'? Did it help sell tickets? Not by a long shot. End result? These films were just not good enough. 'Jab we met' was extremely entertaining, will '3 Idiots' follow suit? Or will it bomb due to the Kareena curse? In any case we can expect 'Saifeena' on Twitter anytime soon; Priyanka Chopra began Tweeting to promote 'Kaminey'; Shahid, Genelia and director Ken Ghosh recently became Tweet-happy (hint: Chance pe Dance).
