Allu Arjun‘s dreams of establishing himself as a pan-India star with ‘Pushpa‘ seem to have shattered even before the release of the film. Why do we say this? Read on to find out.
Telugu star Allu Arjun had grand plans to conquer the box office in the whole of India with his upcoming release Pushpa, and not just the four states in the South of the country. With that objective in mind, producers Mythri Movie Makers and Allu Arjun launched Pushpa on an ambitious scale, with releases planned in Telugu, Tamil Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi.
Allu Arjun’s previous release ‘Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo’ received a terrific response from Hindi-speaking audiences. The universal success of that film galvanised the star and his producers to launch his next, ‘Pushpa’ as a pan-India release. Maybe the emergence of Telugu star Prabhas and Kannada star Yash as legit pan-India stars gave Allu Arjun hope of achieving the same success as these two stalwarts. With hope in their hearts, the stakeholders decided upon December 17, 2021 to release their magnum opus in five languages across the country.
But fate, it seems, had other plans.
The biggest and buzziest Hollywood film of the year, ‘Spider-Man No Way Home‘ chose that very day to release across the world, and in India one day earlier. As details of the film dropped from time to time, buzz for Spider-Man No Way Home escalated in India like no other Hollywood film in recent history. Result: No Way Home has seen eye-popping advance ticket bookings and ticket sales across the country. The craze for the film is unprecedented, equalling that for Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame almost. And ticket cash counters are ringing in proof of the same.
With Covid-19 still spooking out people with its new, extremely transmissible Omicron strain, people are very choosy about the films they want to watch in the theatres. And Spider-Man: No Way Home seems to have won the turf war in the North of the country.
While the cash registers for Spider-Man: No Way Home won’t stop ringing, buzz for Pushpa in the Hindi belt is next to negligible. Whatever buzz there is for Pushpa in Hindi is only on social media, courtesy some well-placed and well-timed social media updates from paid influencers. Buzz for Pushpa Hindi on the ground is next to zero. Advanced ticket sales match the zero buzz. While Spider-Man: No Way Home has notched up advanced bookings in crores, Pushpa in Hindi has managed a paltry ₹10-15 lakhs in advanced ticket sales.
Pushpa’s hopes of capturing the box office in the next week are down in the doldrums too. Assuming that Spider-Man: No Way Home euphoria dies down by next Friday, another keenly anticipated film will make its way to theatres – Ranveer Singh’s 83. The film that recounts India’s thunderous Cricket World Cup 1983 win has begun creating sizeable buzz. And mark our words, buzz for the film will only rise in the coming week. 83 is a film to be enjoyed on the big screen. And Hindi-speaking audiences will definitely make a beeline to watch it in the theatres.
Caught between these two biggies, Pushpa in Hindi will come and go, without making a dent in the Hindi cinema-scape. And without giving its star Allu Arjun that coveted pan-India star status. Pushpa will be a blockbuster in Telugu, there’s not an iota of doubt about it. It might do good business even in Tamil and Malayalam. But Pushpa in Hindi is destined to be a failure.
And Allu Arjun will have to try his pan-India star luck with some other film – when fate is more favourable. Until then, good luck to the actor for the success of Pushpa in the South.