What WENT WRONG with RRR?

The final production cost of RRR is estimated to be approximately Rs 525 crore (Rs 5.25 billion), a sum impossible to recover through theatrical collections, even if it was the biggest hit of all times, which it is not, explains Subhash K Jha.

Here is what you have heard: S S Rajamouli's RRR is breaking all box office records.

But this is the truth: The collections are far from overwhelming.

In fact, the film will show a massive deficit in the accounts sheets.

Here's why: The production costs were vertiginous to begin with. They mounted during the backbreaking breaks that the team had to compulsorily take during the pandemic.

The final production cost of RRR is estimated to be approximately Rs 525 crore (Rs 5.25 billion), a sum impossible to recover through theatrical collections, even if it was the biggest hit of all times, which it is not.

The truth is, the RRR collections are spiraling down by the day even in its traditional bastions, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

In the Hindi belt, it collected Rs 120 crore (Rs 1.2 billion) in the first six days.

In many of the North Indian multiplexes, RRR, in its first week, did less business than The Kashmir Files in its third week.

So what really went wrong with RRR?

Why is it not the blockbuster it was expected to be?

Firstly, high expectations from the Baahubali director shot down the film's staying power even before RRR could make it into theatres.

Secondly, the costume drama chose to go completely haywire when Ram Charan took to the bow and arrow and transformed from a Ram avatar to Rama while his co-star N T Rama Rao, not the least awestuck, looked on.

NTR Jr's massive fan following has not taken kindly to Ram Charan's climactic transformation. Reports are that NTR agrees with his fans.

The Hindutva card which Rajamouli plays so blatantly at the end of the film has backfired.

While audiences are left wondering what Ram Charan is up to, the audience that backed The Kashmir Files for playing the Hindutva card are not quite willing to extend the same support to RRR.

At a time when revisionist history has rectified the injustice done to Kashmiri Pandits, a film that fantasises history to the point of hysteria is not only unacceptable but also undesirable.