Several promising movies graced the screens in the first six months of 2023. However, to the dismay of the audience, a majority of them stumbled at the box office.
Let us now delve into the films that were anticipated and hyped but failed miserably in terms of commercial success.
Shakuntalam: First on the list is "Shakuntalam." This film garnered significant hype due to its adaptation of the tale from the Mahabharata and Kalidasa's "Abhijnana Shakuntalam."
With Samantha playing the lead role, expectations soared, although there were doubts about Guna Sekhar's ability to effectively navigate emotionally driven narratives. Sadly, the film faced outright rejection from the audience on its very first day.
The presence of subpar CG work, weak writing, TV-serial-like dialogues, and underwhelming performances ultimately doomed the film, resulting in a catastrophic outcome.
Custody: The film carried significant anticipations, yet it fell short of leaving a notable impact on the revenue front.
Helmed by Venkat Prabhu, the movie titled 'Custody' generated an estimated pre-release revenue of around Rs 25 crores.
Regrettably, it ended up being a dual calamity, accumulating a meager sum of less than Rs 7 crores.
This letdown arrived in the wake of Naga Chaitanya's previous venture, 'Thank You,' which also failed to fulfill the projected prospects, thereby compounding the actor's predicament.
Ravanasura: This year witnessed yet another debacle for Ravi Teja. Under the directorial helm of Sudheer Varma, the film 'Ravanasura' brought forth disillusionment for Ravi Teja, who had recently savored triumph with the motion picture 'Dhamaka.'
Presented as a nationwide vengeance saga, 'Ravanasura' failed to strike a chord with the viewers, leading to substantial financial setbacks for the producers.
This cinematic endeavor served as a setback for Ravi Teja, who had been relishing a fruitful phase in his professional journey.
Rama Banam: This turns out to be the most colossal disappointment from People's Media Factory. Director Sriwass, with this shoddy production, managed to tarnish the esteemed reputation of the production house.
Despite being crafted with a lavish budget of Rs 50 crores, the film carried immense hopes as it united the prosperous duo of Gopichand and director Sriwass.
However, the motion picture failed to meet the anticipated outcomes, meagerly amassing less than Rs 4 crores at the box office.
'Rama Banam' emerged as one of the cinematic ventures that inflicted the most severe financial losses upon the producers in the year 2023.
Agent: The film became yet another chapter of failure in Akhil's ceaseless saga to score a success.
Helmed by Surender Reddy, 'Agent,' presented as a thrilling spy action extravaganza, turned out to be a colossal letdown for the producers.
Following a mundane premise, the film swiftly vanished from cinema halls within its opening weekend.
According to reports, the producer, Anil Sunkara, incurred losses of approximately Rs 30 crores due to this venture. The absence of ingenuity in the plotline significantly contributed to its downfall at the box office.
Adipurush: 'Adipurush,' hailed as the most exciting film of the year, created a frenzy in both Tollywood and Bollywood. But as the Telugu version of the film was boutght for Rs 160 Cr, finally the production house incurred a loss of Rs 60 Cr which is very big.
Looking at the figures, it should be declared that it is a damn failure in Telugu.
Coming to the other small to mid-range films that garnered some buzz but failed miserably are:
Naresh-Pavitra's 'Malli Pelli,' directed by MS Raju, Kalyan Ram's 'Amigos' in which he portrayed three roles, Kiran Abbavarm's 'Meter' in which he made a futile attempt to present himself as a mass hero, Sundeep Kishen's 'Michael' which aimed to imitate the KGF format, and Sudheer Babu's 'Hunt' which unfortunately failed to make an impact despite sincere efforts.
Let us wait and see what is in store for the second half of 2023.