Samantha Ruth Prabhu's 'Shaakuntalam' Bombs At The Box Office
The movie, directed by Gunasekhar, is based on a popular play Abhignyana Shakuntalam by Kalidasa. Samantha plays the titular role while Dev Mohan features as Dushyanta in the film which was billed as a Disneyfied adventure like never before.
Made on a budget of around 70 crores, Shaakuntalam was one of the most anticipated films at the time it was announced and was also carrying huge expectations as far as the box office is concerned. However, as seen with other films, the long delay in production made it a less exciting film.
There wasn't much excitement among the audiences around the release of the film, however, it was still expected to fetch a good opening considering Samantha's presence but it didn't happen as it took one of the lowest starts of just approx. 3.20 crores gross for a Telugu movie featuring a prominent star.
The critics as well as the general audience came hard at it and called the film a painful watch for not doing justice to the popular play. After such poor reviews, the hope of growing at the box office over the weekend also got blurred as it made only around 6.70 crores gross domestically in all languages.
The overseas collection is also poor with around 2 crores for the total worldwide collection of approx. 8.70 crores. It is heading towards finishing below 15 crores in lifetime collection at the worldwide box office, proving to be an epic box office disappointment.
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