The film, which hit theaters on May 20, ran into Kartik Aaryan’s starring “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2” head-on. While the horror-comedy sequel got off to a strong start at the box office with lifetime collections of nearly Rs 180 crore, ‘Dhaakad’ failed to attract crowds despite decent marketing and buzz. .
Independent film trade analyst Sumit Kadel explains the reasons for the debacle that ‘Dhaakad’ turned out to be. In his view, ‘Dhaakad’ alone is not an isolated story with such low turnout. There is a tendency, big budget movies are severely bombarded by audiences in cinemas.
Sumit told IANS, “After the pandemic, many big movies led by big stars like ‘Anek’ and ‘Jayeshbhai Jordaar’ did poorly at the box office. They failed to even collect Rs 15 crore. over their lifetime. The same thing happened with ‘Dhaakad’, audiences were not at all interested in watching a female-centric, Hollywood-style action movie genre.”
But, there is a more disturbing trend forming the undercurrent and it is certainly not good news for Kangana. The actress’ stardom seems to be fading, as Sumit puts it, “Kangana’s box office appeal is diminishing year by year.”
He isn’t shy about pointing out an exception though, “‘Manikarnika’ (Kangana’s first film) was an exception that was grosser on average.” Thinking back, “his last clean hit was ‘Tanu Weds Manu Returns’ in 2015”, Sumit provides the reason behind his analysis.
“It’s not that ‘Dhaakad’ was a bad cinematic experience, the film boasted slick action sequences, tasteful camerawork and color palette, but the biggest mainstay on which rests a film – the story, turned out to be the weakest for the film.”
“Audiences want to watch artists who can justify their big-screen experience and their hard-earned money,” the business analyst firmly asserts as he asserts that this is the era of good content coupled with high production value.
To be honest, entertainment reigns supreme for the movie to run at the box office, “High content movies with less entertainment value and social message type movies wouldn’t run at the box office unless the content isn’t extraordinary like ‘The Kashmir Files’,” he adds.
As for ‘Dhaakad’, the damage seems to have been compounded simply because of the directors’ misplaced trust, “They were so confident in their product that they didn’t even sell their film to digital and satellite distributors, and now they’re looking at the movie’s performance so badly, no one is willing to buy it, even at its fair value,” Sumit concludes.
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