SWOT for Kartik Aaryan: Identifying the Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats for the Boy Next Door
Decoding Kartik Aaryan. The analysis of his career, his probable shortfalls, the opportunity that looms in the market and the threats that can pull him down. Pinkvilla discusses
Over the years, SWOT analysis has been conventionally used to identify and analyze the Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats of an organization in the business world. It is among the most accepted principals, alongside PESTLE analysis, used in making a holistic business decision by the stakeholders. As a method, SWOT can be applied in all mediums of work, and in a first, we at Pinkvilla now bring this methodology to application for the top male and female stars of Bollywood. We take this segment forward with Kartik Aaryan, and here’s decoding the factors that have worked in favour of, gone against as also, the opportunities waiting to be explored by bypassing the threats for the Boy Next Door.
Strengths
Boy Next Door
Kartik Aaryan brought in that relatability factor for the audience following the success of Pyaar Ka Punchnama franchise and Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety. He attained the boy next door image for the youth in the age bracket of 15 to 30, who could find themselves entangled in similar problemS as Kartik. The follow up to these films, Luka Chuppi and Pati Patni Aur Woh consolidated his position in this section of audience, who prefers to watch films on by bunking the lectures on Friday. This reflected in the opening day of these films, as also his dud, Love Aaj Kal, which opened better than most of the young actors in the industry. Probably, the good opening of these films is the reason why a negative campaign around his image started.
His biggest strength is the hold among the youth and he shouldn’t lose that under any circumstances in the search for “art”, “edgy cinema”, “content cinema”. It’s a mistake that one of the young actors did, when he was on the peak and today, the confusion has resulted in him losing a significant chunk of audience. Basically, “Chalti Gaadi Ka Bonut Maat Kholo” is an advice that Kartik should abide by and continue doing those fun, light hearted, frothy rom-coms, and reserve the artistic side probably when he turns 40.
Weakness
Wrong career choices
It’s very difficult for a young actor in this industry to not get tempted by the offers made by “edgy filmmakers” who want to explore the “actor” in a probable star, whose image is to create relatable content. Kartik should be at comfort with his strength rather than exploring different spaces at the moment, and diminishing the hold he has in a particular segment of audience. The single screen crowd is always loyal (but he doesn’t have that following), whereas it doesn’t take long for multiplex audience to shift their liking from one actor to another. They are spoilt for choices.
Kartik may come across many directors, who will narrate him scripts according to their whims and fancies, promising best actor award, but he should rather stick to the commercial side at this point of time. Contrary to the social media narrative, it’s always numbers that would give you solo hero films with spiked up budget and not the acclaim. If acclaim got you stardom, many good actors would have been superstars today. Certain choices he is tempted towards at this point of time are probably wrong from the word go, and that will certainly tamper his standing in the market. The audience have liked a certain aspect of him as an actor, so why step out of the way to try something and give the audience an ammunition to fire? Remember, an Imtiaz Ali today will sell dreams, but not the tickets at the counter whereas Anees Bazmee might not sell dreams, but his cinema definitely has an audience. In a single sentence, the audience for a bad film by Anees Bazmee is equivalent to a good Imtiaz Ali film with the same star-cast. Go ahead with your conviction and make informed choices!!!
Opportunity
Filling the rom-com void
The rom-com genre in Bollywood has just disappeared. While the actors from 90s are well past their age to do such films, the younger lot for stars, for some reason prefers to stay away from the genre (probably, rom-com is not edgy and content driven). There is a huge audience in India for these fluffy, not so serious, entertaining, non-messaging, madly in love, commercial romantic comedies. Imagine, a Love Aaj Kal with that kind of promo opening in double digits. just shows the audience hungry for good rom-coms.
No one at present is doing comedies and romantic comedies, and this is well a space for Kartik to make his own and come up with films at frequent intervals. He can probably even time the release of the films in these zones with Valentine’s Day or make sure, they don’t release in the exam period. There may be 100s of people around him to push him towards working with “critically” acclaimed directors, but it’s honestly the time for him to fill this void, before it’s too late.
Threat
Overexposure in media
This is one aspect that has taken a major toll on Kartik’s image on the social media. There is a joke going around in the industry that “Kartik Jisko Bhi Milega, Paparazzi Saath Le Ayega” and there is an urgency for him to rework on this strategy. Creating speculations post meetings with a certain actor or director or producer is a thing of past, and he should rather concentrate on his work, and let the news of him doing a film come out when he is actually a part of it. This applies to all stars, paparazzi don’t reach a place, until and unless they are informed about the same. The over-hyper nature is putting a dent on his image, and also making some producers averse to work with him.
And it’s this image that is harming the general perception around him as a person too. His personal life too is no longer personal, as everyone knows what he is up-to on a day-to-day basis. He should probably take it easy, slow and let his work do the talking on social media. He is far off from the perception that's being created and this statement comes from the author's personal interaction with Kartik. But well, perception always takes a front seat in times like these. So better, stay away from the PeRception game, and concentrate on work, as he is here to stay.