Negative reviews of Prabhas-starrer ‘Adipurush’, which released on June 16, has taken a toll on the shares of PVR-Inox, the country’s largest multiplex player. The company’s stock price fell 6.5% in the last three trading sessions, resulting in an erosion of Rs 965 crore in market value, data from the BSE shows.
While T-Series, which is the producer of the film, said that ‘Adipurush’ had breached the Rs 375-crore mark in worldwide gross collections since its release on Friday, the Indian box office presents a different picture, trade experts said.
While the south market, particularly the Telugu market, did give a thumbs-up to the film in the first three days following release, its performance has weakened over Monday and Tuesday. On Monday, for instance, the Telugu version did a net business of just around 7 crore versus8.5 crore for the Hindi version, trade experts said.
“The negative word of mouth has come into play,” film trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted, pointing to the importance of favourable reviews when it comes to big-budget movies such as ‘Adipurush’, which ride on curiosity and hype.
The movie, made at an estimated Rs 500 crore, had attracted criticism for its dialogues and poor VFX effects, with the lines spoken by actor Devdatta Nage as Bajrang or Hanuman being singled out in particular.
While the director Om Raut and writer Manoj Muntashir said on Sunday that they would revise the dialogues in a week, it has not helped in pacifying some audiences, who have called for the film’s boycott.
On Monday, Union minister of information and broadcasting Anurag Thakur said that no one had the right to hurt the sentiments of people, adding that the Central Board of Film Certification was looking into the matter.
A retelling of the Ramayana, the cast of ‘Adipurush’ includes Prabhas as Raghav, Kriti Sanon as Janaki, Saif Ali Khan as Lankesh or Ravan, Sunny Singh as Shesh or Lakshman, and Devdatta Nage as Bajrang.