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What Went Wrong With Varun Dhawan's ‘Baby John’: Remake Fatigue, Marketing Misfire, 'Pushpa 2' Wave
The Atlee-backed actioner, expected to be the hottest box-office bet of 2024, has landed cold. Here's a breakdown of everything that went wrong.
Three months before Baby John hit the screens, an exclusive five-and-a-half minute-long glimpse from the actioner was screened at Big Cine Expo, the largest convention of film exhibitors across India. When the specially curated buzz-generator montage got over, nearly 200 exhibitors in the audience were thrilled—there was applause, hooting, whistling, and some even gave it a standing ovation.
The hottest film of the season, it seemed, was ready to roar.
However, a day after Baby John hit the screens, the theatres were running empty. What went wrong in 90 days?
As the Varun Dhawan-led outing started its sprint towards the big Christmas release, things began to fall apart. The hype wave rose, soared, and eventually crashed. The Atlee-backed remake of his own blockbuster Theri (2016) opened to mixed reviews and a shockingly low box-office figure of ₹11.25 crores nett last Wednesday.
Irrespective of the film's quality that determines its lifetime collection, the team of Baby John missed the big opening day figure—which, given its box office-friendly genre, the festive season, and producer Atlee's credibility after Jawan (2023)— was originally projected to be around ₹25-30 crores. The film is now aiming to end its lifetime run under ₹40 crores.
The Hollywood Reporter India spoke to multiple industry insiders to piece together how a film hot in trade suddenly turned cold, with the makers unable to take control of the narrative as it kept slipping away.
Marketing
Even before the first asset of Baby John was out, the film was part of every list featuring the potential big box-office breakouts of the year. Now, it's heartbreakingly crawling towards another list: emerging as one of the biggest upsets of all time.
Exhibitor Akshaye Rathi, who was among those to catch an exclusive glimpse of the film at the Big Cine Expo, recalled feeling hyped after the footage. “Some 200 people saw it and gave a standing ovation. What happened after that is crazy. All of us were aghast at the way the campaign was playing out,” Rathi told THR India.
After unveiling character posters and a special cut featuring the film's antagonist Jackie Shroff, the makers dropped their first major visual asset, the teaser—marketed as a ‘taster cut’—on November 4. This set the tone right for the promotions.
A leading marketing expert said everything started to go downhill after the ‘taster cut’ was released, believing nothing else landed—including the big trailer, where the makers desperately teased a cameo of superstar Salman Khan to audiences.
“First of all, the assets had nothing going for them, neither in scale nor in emotions. To top it off, the marketing felt clueless,” the marketing expert said, on condition of anonymity. “The film’s selling point was a romantic-comedy star aiming to go big with an actioner by a south director. With Varun mostly seen joking with his co-stars Keerthy Suresh and Wamiqa Gabbi during the promotions, Baby John ended up looking like just another romantic comedy, rather than a big festival release you wouldn't want to miss.”
Rathi, too, backed the reading of the situation, noting how the on-ground events of the film had Dhawan dancing with either Suresh or Gabbi, leading to a perception blunder that dented its opening.
“The optics and PR communication did make it seem like a romantic film, with some action thrown in. But the film—which, of course, has its flaws—is a desi, hardcore actioner. Had the communication been more purist to the audience and who this film was made for, it would have opened better and probably done even better,” Rathi explained.
Between the release of the teaser and the film, the makers dropped another five assets: the songs ‘Nain Matakka’ on November 25 and ‘Pikley Pom’ on December 6, followed by the trailer of the film on December 9. This was succeeded by the love ballad ‘Hazaar Baar’, featuring Dhawan and Suresh on December 19, and the pumping ‘Beast Mode’ on December 24.
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“Barring ‘Nain Matakka’, nothing worked. Then, the team made a big mistake. The main asset, that is your trailer, took a backseat. It wasn't promoted enough,” another marketing executive, who has worked on some of the biggest films of recent times, told THR India. "The trailer wasn’t given the needed digital push. Whether it is good or bad, if your trailer isn't reaching people, nothing else matters. Regardless of your marketing campaign, the audience will see the trailer and decide if they want to watch the film.”
Trade critic Taran Adarsh told THR India that there was ‘awareness’ regarding the film, but the songs didn’t catch on, and the trailer didn’t quite leave a universal impact. “Pre-release, the trailer, and the songs are extremely important. Stree 2 had a big hit song—apart from it being a brand—and that helped. Here, the trailer was met with mixed responses, and didn't work with many.”
By now, according to the marketing executive speaking to THR India, the Baby John team should have hit the panic button, and quickly cut another trailer to salvage the situation. Instead, more songs started to drop.
“Once you know the trailer has not landed universally, cut another trailer, release dialogue promo and BTS, and keep the communication heavily centered on the film. There was no Baby John in the promotions; it was Varun and Atlee,” the executive said. “What about the film? If Atlee says his next with Salman Khan is going to be the proudest film of our country, you have immediately sidelined Baby John. The optics work in such a way that then you are already looking forward to the next one then, not the current one.”
On-Ground Events
Another leading marketing professional explained how a successful campaign today is measured by the social media virality of its on-ground events. Baby John had several stops across the country; however, the team is said to not have opted for media and influencer tie-ups, which significantly dented its coverage.
The professional picked Pushpa 2 as the best-marketed film of the year, as its team managed to successfully capitalise on the existing audience interest, delving into “brilliant brand integrations” along with on-ground events that were successfully mirrored by both traditional and social media.
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Some of the events, the marketing executive felt, were unnecessary—like Dhawan showing up at Karan Aujla's concert in Gurugram. “It adds value only if your trailer is played at a concert, which doesn't happen usually,” they said. “Even if it had, this gimmick doesn't work because people are drunk, having a good time, and they do not like to break its rhythm. They have paid a bomb for the artiste—they do not like to break the flow. That’s not the way to win over a crowd.”
Rathi, too, noted that everything Baby John was trying to pull felt ‘off’, as this is not how front-loaded mass action entertainers should be positioned. “While it is a front-footed action film for single screens and the mass audience, the tone of communication was in the middle of nowhere,” he said. “Neither was it catering to the urban multiplex audience, nor was its conviction speaking to the masses. That made it enter into no man’s land.”
Remake Fatigue And The Pushpa 2 Tsunami
While the film's marketing was prominently discussed in industry circles, doubts about Baby John's performance were already brewing, owing to the ‘remake fatigue’ that the audience seems to be going through post-pandemic, with the tanking of several remakes, including Selfie (2023), Shehzada (2023), Bholaa (2023), Bachchhan Paandey (2022), Vikram Vedha (2022) and Sarfira (2024).
The only two remakes that worked at the box office were Drishyam 2 (2022) and Shaitaan (2024)—both starring Ajay Devgn. Incidentally, the Hindi dubbed versions of these films weren't available online for people to watch, lending originality to the Bollywood outings. Theri (2016), for example, is available in Hindi for free on YouTube and Prime Video.
“Theri released in 2016, and if you are making the film today, it needs to be updated. Otherwise, where is the novelty in the subject?” Taran Adarsh said. “We have seen these kinds of films time and again, so to choose a film just because it was successful doesn't make sense. Your core audience has seen and enjoyed Theri. So why would you serve them the same again? The remake factor has definitely dented its prospects, but that was not the only thing going against it,” he explained.
Adarsh added, “Even from a release point of view, Mufasa: The Lion King is doing well, and then there is Pushpa 2, in which people experienced great masala—from big action set pieces to scale—and it is an original story. Baby John has nothing to match that”.
Speaking to THR India, Girish Johar, producer and film business expert, noted how both Baby John and Jawan (2023), Atlee’s Hindi directorial debut, had one major difference.
“If you watch Jawan, it is obvious that Shah Rukh universalised the south masala genre to cater to his pan-India fan base. However, Varun and the team failed by not taking this approach. The southern flavour, storytelling, and style were more dominant in Baby John, with no tweak at all for the north audience. When they see a Bollywood face like Varun, they expect a Hindi film, in terms of narrative at least. So, even this went against the film,” he explained.
A lot of these factors have dented the film, Adarsh concluded. “The industry must look at these with urgency. There is a clear message from the audience here: the industry now needs to recalibrate the kind of movies it wants to make.”