BB, KGF, Saaho Worked- Why Not Sye Raa?

Young Rebel Star Prabhas’s Baahubali series and Rockstar Yash’s KGF Chapter 1 did not have presence of actors from other languages. Still, both the films did wonders at box office in all south languages and also in Hindi belt.

Prabhas’s last outing Saaho was also a commercial hit in Hindi, though the Sujeeth directorial was slammed by critics for poor writing and irrational taking. Of course, the film featured several Bollywood actors. But, none of them were crowd pullers. The Hindi version alone crossed 150 Cr Nett Mark which is surely a remarkable feat.

Interestingly, Mega Star Chiranjeevi’s highly anticipated flick Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy which was made on grand scale and had presence of popular actors from various languages is turning out to be an utter flop in all languages, except for Telugu.

Sye Raa featured Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, Sandalwood star Sudeep, Kollywood star Vijay Sethupathi and several other noted actors from various other languages. Still, the film failed to rake even decent numbers in Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi.

Trade analysts opine that, War has killed the chances of Sye Raa in Bollywood. In fact, War initially performed far better to Sye Raa in Tamil Nadu and Kerala as well.

Other than War, few other factors also affected Sye Raa disapprovingly. War episodes turned routine and even screenplay was tedious at places. Since the writing team couldn’t find the accurate details of the life of Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy, they with no option left included abundant fictional elements.

Few also opined that, Chiranjeevi did not look appropriate in the role due to age factor. Actually, by the time he was hanged, Uyyalawada was just 35.

Coming to overseas, Sye Raa collected over $2.5 Million in USA. The 99 per cent revenue is from Telugu version, which means the film has done almost zero business in other languages in the territory.