Prabhas' 'Adipurush' shows enough signs to be categorised a flop; OTT rights may be renegotiated

At an estimated budget of Rs 550 crore, there was a lot at stake for Adipurush. Released on June 16, the opening weekend was hugely encouraging. It garnered Rs 190 crore across Hindi and the four south Indian languages. The film was shot simultaneously in Hindi and Telugu and dubbed in Tamil and Malayalam. The moment of truth was the first Monday when the collections in the domestic market tanked by over 75 per cent.  

“The fall was imminent,” says Taran Adarsh, film critic and trade analyst. According to him, the huge advance booking was because of the Ramayana factor. “Once the audience watched it between Friday and Sunday, it dropped sharply,” he explains. Since then, Adipurush has struggled and net box office numbers stand at Rs 282 crore, according to sacnilk.com in the domestic market. Of that, a whopping Rs 260 crore came in the first week—Hindi brought in Rs 133 crore followed by Telugu at Rs 120 crore—with the following week being a disaster at barely Rs 20 crore. “Obviously, it is a huge let down for everyone in the film business. A free fall of this nature sends out the wrong signal,” adds Adarsh. 

Looking at the film beyond the numbers, audience feedback has largely negative, be it on the dialogues, unimpressive VFX and high dependence on the Jai Shri Ram song. Prabhas, a big name down south and an actor who gained fame across the country after the huge success of the Baahubali franchise, was chosen to play the title role. “His presence worked in Telugu but not in a big way in north India. That was a big reason for the failure of the film,” says Girish Johar, producer and film business expert. To him, the Ram character needs to be handled very sensitively since it comes with a lot of expectation from the audience. “The trailer too pushed the Jai Shri Ram song but the content did not match up to it.” The buzz in the trade is that the satellite and OTT rights too may be renegotiated after the film has bombed at the box-office. All this will only put more pressure on the second half for Bollywood, with the first six months delivering just three hits after over 50 releases.

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Also read: 'Adipurush' domestic box office collection day 12: Prabhas, Kriti Sanon's film struggles to touch Rs 300 crore