Prabhas and Pooja Hegde’s much-awaited movie Radhe Shyam was released this week and as expected got a good response in Hyderabad and in all the Telugu-speaking cities. Prabhas is a Darling of all the Tollywood fans and it has been almost three years since his last movie Sahoo with Shraddha Kapoor was released. So, the hype and response here were expected. But the major gamble was reaching out to the pan India audience. And here, it seems the movie has failed to draw a huge response. Post the success of Baahubali, the Rebel star received pan India recognition and since then, he has been trying hard to become a pan India superstar.
And that is why all his upcoming movies are going to be bilingual and will release in Hindi simultaneously as well as in other Southern languages. Radhe Shyam might be getting a decent flow of audience at the theaters but it is far off from the overwhelming response Alia Bhatt’s Gangubai Kathiawadi or even Allu Arjun’s Pushpa: The Rise received.
On the same line, Ranveer Singh’s last few releases have been big hits. Be it Padmaavat, Bajirao Mastani, Gully Boys, or Simmba, most of his films have been huge hits and that is why it was expected that his last release with Kabir Khan-83 will deliver yet another big hit to his credit. However, the biopic on the life of India’s first world cup-winning captain Kapil Dev fell flat at the box office despite aggressive promotions both in the Southern and Northern belt.
It makes one wonder whether all the previous hits of Ranveer were because of his stardom or because there were some big directors associated with them. For example, Simmba was directed by Rohit Shetty who has an unmatched box-office record. The other last three big hits of Ranveer were directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali who has an immense following among a certain class of society and his movies are always expected to do good (Guzaarish is an exception).
The same can be said of Prabhas who reached the Indian hearts with Baahubali. The movie was helmed by SS Rajamouli who is a big director in the South. So, it seems it was more of the director’s magic than the superstardom of these big stars that made Baahubali or Ranveer Singh’s Padmaavat or Simmba such huge hits.