Saaho, which is riding on huge hype, has received negative reviews from viewers and critics. Many fans of Prabhas are worried over the word of mouth taking a toll on its collection at the worldwide box office.
Saaho is undoubtedly one of the most-talked-about and highly-awaited action thrillers of Indian cinema in 2019. A host of aspects have built a massive amount of curiosity and expectations from the movie, which was released in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam in over 8,500 cinema halls across the globe on August 30.
But, Saaho has apparently failed to meet the expectations, as many film goers and critics have expressed their disappointment over Sujeeth's direction, scripting and characterisation. The movie has been made with a whopping budget of Rs 350 crore and its theatrical rights have been sold for a record price of Rs 290 crore.
The stakes are really very high on Saaho and many in the film industry are worried that the negative reviews may take a toll on its collections at the worldwide box office in the coming days. But the distributors and makers of the film are confident that it would recover their investments and be a successful venture at the box office.
There are a couple of reasons for their faith in its success. Firstly, Saaho starring Prabhas and Shraddha Kapoor may be a non-holiday release, but it has the unique advantage of having a long weekend in both India and the USA. Monday happens to be the holiday on account of Ganesh Chathurthiin India and Labor Day in the USA. The movie is expected to fare well on September 2
Secondly, usual trends are that a film will have massive advance booking for its opening day and the word of mouth would decide its fate at the box office on the following days. But this is not the case with Saaho. After watching its promos, the audience were so curious about the movie and they seemed to least bothered about the reviews. Hence, the film registered massive advance booking for the first four days from Friday to Monday.
Noted film critic and trade analyst Idlebrain Jeevi tweeted, "Everybody is watching and criticising #Saaho. It's almost full till Monday. That's the beauty of big ticket films where audience have made up their mind to watch the film irrespective of feedback! #Saaho is getting extraordinary openings all over India."
However, Saaho is estimated to have earned over Rs 75 crore for its distributors on the first day. Considering its advance booking, the movie would easily fetch more than Rs 125 crore in the next three days (Saturday to Monday). In four days, the film would return Rs 200 crore for its distributors, who have shelled out Rs 290 crore.
Saaho may have a problem with its script, but its never-seen-before production would surely drive the film goers crazy towards theatres on the weekdays. The movie will easily recover the remaining investment of Rs 90 crore. It is expected to earn some amount of profit share to the distributors in the coming weeks.
