MUMBAI: Before ‘Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’, Ranbir Kapoor was being hailed as one of Bollywood’s most dependable stars. His films would do well at the box-office irrespective of the material involved.

Then ‘Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’ happened and that belief was strengthened further. It ended up being one of the biggest hits of the year. Everyone thought Ranbir was invincible. ‘Besharam’ was poised to be a blockbuster. Ranbir Kapoor, a midweek opening on a national holiday, solo release, maximum number of screens for any Bollywood movie.

But then, ‘Besharam’ crashed. And burnt.

It earned Rs 300 million (Rs 30 crore) nett over its first three days (not the weekend, due to a Wednesday opening.) Consider this with ‘Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’ which had Rs 624.6 million (Rs 62.46 crore) nett in its first three days without any advantage that ‘Besharam’ enjoyed. Even his previous release ‘Barfi!’, which was not a commercial entertainer at all, enjoyed Rs 348 million (Rs 34.80 crore) nett.

Compare that to Ranbir Kapoor’s first film ‘Saawariya’; even that earned more than ‘Besharam’ at Rs 500 million (Rs 50 crores) nett, although it had the benefit of a Diwali release.

Perhaps Ranbir Kapoor’s worst showing at the box office is ‘Rocket Singh: Salesman Of The Year’ which collected only Rs 102 million (Rs 10.25 crore) nett. Though to be fair, it was a film that managed rave reviews and wasn’t the usual commercial fare.

So did ‘Besharam’ fail because or inspite of Ranbir Kapoor? We’d go with the latter because Ranbir Kapoor has put his all into the film, being let down by the lackluster script, uninterested direction and the outdated soundtrack. His parents being in the film provided a few moments of in-jokes, but even that got tiring after some time.

Does this decrease Ranbir Kapoor’s market value? Doubt it. He’s always in the news, and has films with Anurag Kashyap (‘Bombay Velvet’) and Imtiaz Ali (untitled film post-‘Highway’) lined up next. Ranbir will not have to bow his head in shame.