Audience Reception: Exploring Collective Spectatorship in the Film ‘Dunki’

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the effect of collective spectatorship when it comes to watching films in the cinema halls. For this purpose, the film ‘Dunki’ with star cast Shahrukh Khan, directed by Rajkumar Hirani was selected. The study has also taken into account the theory of social ontology and effect of stardom to form a premise as other factors involved in the total experience of film viewing. This study has incorporated a mixed method approach involving, quantitative analysis through survey questionnaire using snowball sampling technique, and qualitative analysis through observation method and content analysis. The findings of the study reveal that, in case of the success of the film ‘Dunki’, collective spectatorship did not play much role, rather it was the stardom and social ontological factors that contributed majorly to the success of the film. The outcome of the study suggests that collective spectatorship may not always be solely responsible towards the success of a film, rather at times, just like in case of the film ‘Dunki’, factors dependent on social ontology and stardom can play a lead role towards the success of a film.