Urban Indians are excited for Pathaan

As Pathaan releases today, YouGov data shows it is the most awaited film by urban Indians amongst some of the first few releases of 2023. Touted as Shah Rukh Khan’s comeback film after a hiatus of four years, the film will be released in multiple languages to drive a pan-India appeal. Latest data from YouGov reveals the level of excitement for the film and whether it will translate into footfalls in the theatre.

YouGov’s newly launched Screen Appeal Test (SAT) is a solution to enable content creators (of movies, TV shows, web-series, etc.) evaluate the level of excitement and viewership intent generated by their trailers or teasers.

YouGov tested trailers and teasers of four upcoming movies- Pathaan, Jawaan, Bholaa and Kabzaa, on urban Indian respondents from YouGov India’s online panel. Each trailer was rated on *seven metrics, to give a Combined Appeal Score, which is an average of the seven underlying measures of interest.

Among the four trailers, Recall, which measures the reach that the trailers have managed to build till date was the highest for Pathaan (at 58%). In comparison to this, Recall was the lowest for Kabzaa (28%).

Pathaan scores high on Delivery as well (a measure of how well the trailer can land the main plot/idea of the story), while Jawaan and Bholaa score low on this metric.

Even though Kabzaa is low on Recall it scores high on other metrics such as Curiosity (measures the extent to which a trailer pushes viewers to want to get more information about the movie), Buzz (measures the word-of-mouth potential) and Eagerness to watch a movie (measured on a 10-point scale).

When it comes to Big Screen Pull, which indicates the percent of people who say they will watch a movie in the theatre, there isn’t much difference amongst the four movies, but Kabzaa and Pathaan are slightly ahead in the race. Two in five urban Indians plan to watch Kabzaa and Pathaan in the theatre (40% and 39%), and slightly fewer intend to do that for Jawaan (38%) and Bholaa (37%).

The Combined Appeal Score, an average of the seven underlying measures of interest (from Likeability to Big Screen Pull) shows Pathaan tops the chart and is the most awaited film by urban Indians (at 37%). Interestingly, Kabzaa scores equally high and is at par with Pathaan despite originally being a Kannada- language film.

Furthermore, when the data is filtered by the category of movie viewers, the scores increase for both the films among movie buffs (defined as those who love watching films and never miss catching a latest release in theatres) as compared to the general population but is much higher for Kabzaa (66% for Kabzaa vs 59% for Pathaan). This highlights the strong hold of South Indian cinema amongst Indian audiences and the tough competition for Bollywood films looking for a pan-India appeal.

Using YouGov’s Screen Appeal Test (SAT) content creators can test various versions of a trailer, identify drivers of appeal and understand the big screen potential of their films.