Saaho Early Trends Are Not Encouraging

Plotless  extravaganza,  is  how  Saaho is described by a leading-distributor  exhibitor from the North who adds that  the film will find it  difficult to  break even  with its  Rs 380-crore  budget.

In fact  so insecure are  the film’s producers  about the  reception that  would be accorded  to Saaho  by the Hindi audiences that they  cancelled plans of showing  the film to the Mumbai press on Thursday evening. Normally the press show  is held on  Thursday evening for  critics in Mumbai. The  only times this rule is  sidestepped is when the  producers  are  not sure  of  their product.

 How confident are  the Saaho producers  about  earning back their investment?

A  leading distributor from  North India  predicts, “Saaho will be a  big hit in the South  which is Prabhas’s home base. In the North  audiences will flock for the  first three days to see the  Baahubali hero. After that it will be downhill.”

According to  non-conservative estimates  the  film is expected to make  Rs 60-65 crores  on the day of release.

“We are  opening on 4500 screens. There is practically  nothing else showing in theatres across India from  tomorrow. Audiences have  no choice but to see Saaho. But  I doubt  they will come back  for a repeat viewing,” says  a  leading distributor adding that  there are too many villains in Saaho and one only one  hero ,

Will Prabhas be able to shoulder Saaho?

A  well-placed source  from the Telugu film industry says, “Saaho is  caught in a  peculiar  dilemma. It looks too South Indian for Hindi viewers and not Telugu enough for Andhra/Telangana  viewers. Handing over a Rs 380-crore project to an inexperienced  director(Sujeeth) was  the biggest mistake.”

Adding to  the general  feeling of insecurity  regarding Saaho was the fact that the  delivery  of  the content to single-screen theatres was delayed  till Thursday evening.

Let’s  hope it finally pans out well for Saaho.