The controversies of Akshay Kumar led to low collections in Prithviraj despite the massive marketing and heavy hype, and here’s why.
Boycott Samrat Prithviraj trends heavily while Akshay Kumar’s laboriously advertised movie gets unexpectedly low collections as the historical film Prithviraj received a disappointingly low collection on day 1. In fact, Prithviraj collected only Rs 10.7 Cr on the first day in India. Had the film not been declared tax-free in three states, the collections would have been lower. Considering on a big scale budget the film has been made, it should have collected around Rs 15 to 20 Cr on an opening day.
This was despite massive promotion and huge hype, and double-digit figures through advance sales opened with very low collections on day 1, very low on a movie that was made with a budget of 300 crores INR.
However, it is hoped that it will pick up in two days of the first weekend as the target audience of the film is yet to arrive at the cinema halls, as per the trade experts. As per the early estimates, Prithviraj will see the growth on the second day and collect in the range of Rs 11.5 to 12 crores on Saturday.
In March 2019, Akshay Kumar said that he had been coaxed to star as Prithviraj. The film’s official announcement was made on Kumar’s 52nd birthday (9 September 2019), with a motion poster released by Yash Raj Films on social media.
Manushi Chhillar is making her Bollywood debut and has replaced Aishwarya Rai as Sanyogita. Sanjay Dutt and Manav Vij have been cast for villainous roles. Later, Sonu Sood and Sakshi Tanwar also joined the cast. It also stars Lalit Tiwari, Ajoy Chakraborty, and Govind Pandey in supporting roles.
The Story
The film is based on Prithviraj Raso, a Braj language epic poem about the life of Prithviraj Chauhan, a king from the Chahamana dynasty. The film opens in a stadium in Ghazni, Afghanistan, with prisoner Prithviraj blinded by Muhammad Ghori’s men. He was brought before a rambunctious crowd asking for his death. Prithviraj fights and kills three lions. Prithviraj fights against Muhammad Ghori because the brother of the Afghan king asks him for help. He defeats Ghori easily, then spares his life revealing Rajput greatness that cost his life later.
Why is Akshay Kumar’s Prithviraj Seeming to Plunge?
Errors in the Movie: There are some huge errors in the movie drawing flack. For instance, Prithviraj Chauhan who died in 1192 kills Muhammad Ghori who died in 1206 in the movie.
The movie is not well researched and very scanty without a deeper overview. It is reviewed as a “dull and small-minded historical where Chandraprakash Dwivedi’s film about Prithviraj Chauhan continues Hindi cinema’s obsession with ‘invaders’ from centuries ago,” as expressed by a writer from The Mint.
In fact, as people’s opinions go, it is a film badly made and not presented in the depth a historical movie requires different expertise which film critics say as Rajamouli or Sanjay Leela Bhansali has where they conduct intense researches taking extensive time.
Akshay Kumar saying “no mention of Hindu kings in history textbooks” drew massive outrage: Akshay Kumar alleged that Indian schools never taught about Hindu Kings, which was a political statement trying to imply that other governments before the BJP degraded Hindu Kings. This was a blatantly misleading statement.
Every Indian student who has studied in mainline government and private schools and not in Shakhas was taught extensively from class one to class twelve about the rule of the Rajputs kings, the Golden age of the Guptas, Chalukyas, Hoysalas, Cholas, Cheras, Pallavas, Kakathiyas, Mughals, Tipu and Haider, Mysore Wodeyars, Gangas, Nawabs, about Marathas, Shivaji, Peshwas, Ashoka, Bindusara, etc and all the dynastic kings of both Hindus and Muslims who often made alliances and helped each other. In fact, in Indian history books, we were even taught that Maharana Pratap’s horse was called Chetak!
In fact, the statement of Akshay Kumar where he says there is no mention of Hindu kings in history textbooks drew massive outrage among Indians who have studied in schools that have taught these expansively. Akshay Kumar who is a Canadian citizen made a completely deceitful statement. This probably irked a bigger boycott of his movie.
The belief that Akshay Kumar took away the late Sushant Singh’s movie:
There is a rumor going around that Akshay Kumar “took away” the late Sushant Singh’s movie that he was supposed to act in, and people are still calling for justice for Sushant Singh, believing he was murdered.
It is alleged that when Prithviraj was in the making, the late Sushant Singh was approached for the movie. At that time, Akshay Kumar was alleged to have successfully removed Sushant from the movie and he got the role as he realized it might make a career breakthrough. Thus, the popular belief is Akshay snatched Prithviraj Chauhan’s movie from Sushant.
People feel Akshay is playing politics on behalf of the government: The people are seriously fed up with this government and actors’ nexus and this too is stirring up more communal riots in the country. The people have lost their respect for him in his involvement with the government and actors getting entangled with politics in open propagation of the government have irked the public. It is said that most of the educated elite do not have not an iota of respect for him.
Also, the film’s misinterpreting of history in the movie has additionally heightened people’s anger toward Akshay Kumar. Perhaps, he had been more neutral, his movies would have had a greater impact, and he seems to be falling from his previously elevated pedestal due to digging his hands deep into politics. It was not as much as the movie as it was the person, in this case. They could have cast a politically neutral character to represent the film because ultimately, the masses who fall out with governments direct the success of a movie and one cannot play with their emotions.
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