Surprisingly, Karnataka is witnessing a lackluster reception for "Salaar," and its subsequent performance is raising eyebrows.
While the film is breaking records in the Telugu and Hindi markets, the Kannada version is struggling to generate significant interest from its audience.
Even with Prashant Neel, the renowned Kannada director behind hits like "KGF" with Yash, at the helm, and Prabhas, a household name in Karnataka since the blockbuster "Baahubali" series, associated with the film, there seems to be a lack of traction in Karnataka. Despite these factors, the Kannada audience appears disinterested in "Salaar."
On the second day in North America, the Hindi version of the film reported collections of $192K. In contrast, the collections for the Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam versions were $18K, $5K, and $2K, respectively.
While the challenges for Malayalam can be understood, the decline in Karnataka's interest, despite the Prashant Neel factor, is a cause for concern.
A distributor in Karnataka expressed, "The film didn’t witness remarkable openings in the state as anticipated. We were expecting collections of Rs 2 to 2.5 crores from the Karnataka region, including Bangalore. However, it only managed to garner Rs 1.10 crore in net collections over two days, and improvement is needed in the coming days."