Madhoo reacts to failure of Samantha Ruth Prabhu’s Shaakuntalam despite ‘strong South Indian flavour’: RRR chali gayi…

Actor Madhoo, who was seen playing the role of Menaka in Samantha Ruth Prabhu’s latest release Shaakuntalam, has said that the dull performance of the movie at the box office has hurt her. In an interview, she said that the film has underperformed despite the earnest and honest efforts of the makers. Also read: Samantha Ruth Prabhu’s Shaakuntalam has disappointing opening weekend, grosses less than ₹10 cr worldwide

In the film, Madhoo plays Menaka, the mother of Samantha’s character Shakuntala. In an new interview, Madhoo opened up on the film’s poor performance at the box office.

“I feel very sad that Shakuntalam has underperformed because the makers and producers gave it all. From the pre-production to release, unhone kahi bhi us picture ko dheela nahi chhoda. After shooting and dubbing, they spent an entire year on CGI (computer-generated imagery). They never took the process for granted and made sure to make it a visual treat. While shooting, I saw they never gave any stress to artists or technicians. They took care of our comfort as well,” Madhoo told DNA.

She went on to talk about the success of films such as Baahubali and RRR. She explained that nobody can understand why a film succeeds or fails. “Shakuntalam has a strong South Indian flavour, with mythology. Ab Baahubali chali… RRR chali gayi… jab koi picture chal jaati hai, toh you don’t know.. logic nahi hota (Bahubali, RRR worked. There is no exact reason behind the success of a film). Nobody expected that Baahubali would be such a gigantic hit. Aachi bhi bani ho toh bhi itna bada success kisi ne expect nahi kiya tha (Even if the film is good, no one had expected it to be a big hit). We never anticipated that the film would underperform at the box office. So it just hurts you because this is the film where everyone worked really hard,” she added.

Shaakuntalam turned out to be a dud at the box office. In its opening weekend globally, the Gunasekhar directorial project, which was dubbed and released in Tamil as well as Hindi, didn’t even manage to gross over ₹10 crore, which is said to be the lowest opening for a film made over a budget of ₹50 crore.

In Shaakuntalam, Samantha plays the central character Shakuntala, daughter of Menaka and Viswamithra. The project marked her maiden collaboration with director Gunasekhar.

ott:10