IS BRAHMASTRA A MANIPULATED HIT OR A GENUINE FLOP?

Brahmastra starring Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Amitabh Bachchan, Nagarjuna, and Mouni Roy was expected to do well at the box office. The latest news is that the film has been doing better than expected and it took a bumper opening on Friday - Jyothi Venkatesh

On day 1, the film collected Rs. 36.42 crore nett (all languages), and according to the makers, the movie minted Rs. 75 crore gross worldwide on day 1 which is excellent.

The movie has received mixed reviews from the critics, but the word of mouth has been good, so, it was expected that the movie showed a drastic jump on day 2.

Are Brahmastra’s box office collections fake? Visuals of empty theatres and availability of tickets on booking apps of Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor starrer have sparked off a debate of sorts nationally, because Brahmastra has been made in Hindi and dubbed in Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Tamil too.

According to the makers, on day 2, Brahmastra minted Rs. 85 crore gross worldwide, taking the two days total to Rs. 160 crore gross worldwide.

Well, the collection has been quite positive, and it looks like the movie might cross Rs. 250 crore gross worldwide over the weekend.

Brahmastra has surely become a saviour for Bollywood. Many Bollywood biggies were expected to do well at the box office but turned out to be disasters. However, Brahmastra has gotten some relief for the industry.

But, after the weekend, after the film collected Rs 160 cr , it will be interesting to see what response it will get on the weekdays.

According to multiple trade analysts and the makers, Brahmastra has been doing well at the box office. However, on social media, a few netizens are posting videos and pictures of empty theatres which have started a debate about whether the collections are correct or not. Well, only makers can give a clarification on this.

According to the portal businessinsider.in, forget making back its money, it looks like Brahmastra is taking down investors of PVR and Inox with itself.

With early reviews pouring cold water on Brahmastra’s prospects, India’s largest theater chains PVR and Inox have cumulatively lost over ₹800 crore in market capitalization today.

In Indian mythology, Brahmastra is known as a weapon of unstoppable destruction, which can only be stopped by its counterattack astra (weapon). Ironically, the movie could end up being a victim of the weapon it is named after.

Brahmastra opened to tepid reviews despite healthy advance bookings worth ₹23 crore. Movie reviewer and analyst Taran Adarsh gave the Ranbir-Alia starrer a two-star rating, saying that the movie is a king-sized disappointment, whereas his cousin brother Komal Nahata has said that the film will be a sure shot blockbuster on its own merits.

If Brahmastra tanks, it could not only be one of the biggest Bollywood turnips, but it could also derail the Hindi movie industry’s hopes of a revival at a time when several South Indian movies like Pushpa, RRR and KGF 1 & 2 have broken records nationwide.

Made on a budget of ₹410 crore, Brahmastra has names like Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Amitabh Bachchan, Telugu star Nagarjuna, and even Shah Rukh Khan in a cameo, with Karan Johar as one of the producers.

Essentially, this is the who’s who of the Indian film industry, packed with immense firepower.However, analysts suggest it might end up generating less than half of the money poured into making this movie, which has already been delayed by several years now.

“The lifetime box office (collection) for the film is estimated to be in a wide range of ₹130-200 crore, based on the strong advances,” says a media note by Elara Capital.

This analysis was made before the weak reviews poured in. If Karan Johar & Co. were trying to repeat the large-screen magic of movies like RRR, they might have to try again.

Some viewers also made interesting observations. “It’s basically a badly written Crime Patrol episode dialogues (sic), mixed with a very bad Ekta Kapoor plot,” one viewer said after watching the movie .

Another viewer explained that beyond the visual effects, the movie was a hotch-potch of bad story-telling, and character development, among other issues.

While expert reviews and commentary on social media might influence Brahmastra’s collections over the weekend, word of mouth and the audience reception will decide the movie’s fate eventually.

“We believe a positive word of mouth and audience acceptance can help the film breach the upper end,” said Karan Taurani of Elara Capital. However, it looks like the first round of disappointed viewers is spreading the bad word out.

Kangana Ranaut too joined those damning the film and said director Ayan Mukerji has “burnt 600 crores to ashes”. Kangana took to her Instagram story and first slammed Karan Johar. The actor wrote, “People like Karan Johar should be questioned for their conduct.

He is more interested in everyone’s sex life than in his films scripts. He self admittedly buys reviews, stars, and fake collection numbers and tickets. This time around he tried to ride Hinduism and the south wave.” She then accused Karan of begging south actors and directors to promote his film Brahmastra.

South star Nagarjuna is also a part of Brahmastra and recently Jr. NTR and director SS Rajamouli promoted the film in Hyderabad. She added, “They will do everything but not hire competent writers, directors, actors and other talents. Why not in the first place hire those they went begging to fix this disaster called Brahmastra.”

Kangana Ranaut also blasts producer Karan Johar for providing the trade with the figures of gross collections and not the net collections to mislead them to believe that the film is a blockbuster when it is not.

Kangana, who is right now busy directing her film Emergency, did not spare director Ayan Mukerji either and wrote, “Everyone who called Ayan Mukerji a genius should be jailed immediately… He took 12 years to make this film, he replaced 14 DOP’s he shot for more than 400 days for this film and changed 85 ADs and burnt 600 crores to ashes.

Ayan also tried to exploit religious sentiments by changing the film’s name from Jalaluddin Rumi to Shiva last minute, because of Bahubali success…. Such opportunists, such creativity deprived people, success starved greedy people if called geniuses then it’s not manipulation but a well thought of strategy to call din ko raat and raat ko din,” according to the portal Indianexpress.com.

Is the film Brahmastra manipulated hit or a genuine flop? Your guess is as good as mine.