Sometimes movies have everything a great cast, experienced director, and a lot of buzz. But when it is finally released, it falls short at box office even though critics give good review. There are some films in past and present that did not do well at the box office but did well in our hearts and had very good reviews from critics. Flops or bombed are those films that didn’t perform as well as expected or just flat-out lost money in theaters.
The latest entrant to the list of “great movie but flop” is Ragavendra Rao’s opus Om Namo Venkatesaya. The film was critically acclaimed and also adored by audiences. Every TV channel showered immense praise on Nagarjuna for portraying Hathi Ram Babaji. They even motivated people to watch the movie. But hard to believe that ONV failed to set the world on fire upon its initial release.
Actors, media and at times audience themselves try to convince others to go watch the movies that are tanking at the box office. Recently, “Appatlo okadundevadu” turned out to be good movie and it was much appreciated. The movie is one of its kind and introduced the genre of ‘sudo Realism’ to Tollywood. This movie did not get the chance it was supposed to and ended up bleeding money.
Nagarjuna’s Oopiri also saw the same fate. The very fact that the movie was a remake of Hollywood movie proves the point that it was quite something. Sadly the film couldn’t garner much at the box office, which is such a shame because it was an amazing movie. The collections were not even half of what Soggade Chinni Nayana collected. People did not appreciate seeing Nagarjuna in wheel chair. The cinematography, the screenplay, the acting of Oopiri was next level of Soggade. In past five years, Tollywood stood witness for many such movies like Kanche, Evade Subramanium, Malli Malli idi Rani Roju. One cannot find any sane reason for them to be termed a flop. Why these flicks didn’t do better in theaters is beyond us.
Many movies make millions of dollars in their opening weekend and then fade into oblivion. Box-office numbers can be fun to compare, but they have nothing to do whether or not a movie is good. Besides, everyone knows that certain movies that have racked up the big bucks are terrible. However, such movies are targeted to the mass audience. In a nutshell, these movies follow a process– hero entry, fight, heroine entry, song, fight, interval twist, comedy bits, item song, again fight and climax. This formula thoroughly penetrated into the minds of audience. Audience are used to watching film in a particular format. Any other movie which makes absolute sense, is super logical and has almost everything going on for it will magically fail.
Someone has to change this thought. Who is responsible? The same person who injected the formula – the film fraternity. They shouldn’t complain that audience will not like it, rather they should do more such good movies leaving the audience with no other choice but to accept the change.
For any cinema lover, it is heart breaking to see a magnificent movie deprived of the audience appreciation. But the very fact that our dear Tollywood is now catering to different categories of audiences is a good sign. The incredible talent which brings about good movies, acknowledging the numbers game, has to keep doing it. They have to do it, till the old formula gets erased from the minds of the audience.
