Samantha’s Shaakuntalam Tanks at the Box Office; Producer Dil Raju calls him the “biggest jerk” of his career

Shaakuntalam, the long-awaited epic drama that stars Samantha Ruth Prabhu in the lead role, hit theaters in April this year. The Gunasekhar-directed film was released after multiple delays caused by technical and production issues. Despite being headlined by Samantha, who is currently one of the hottest female stars in the South Indian film industry, and receiving a massive promotional campaign, Shaakuntalam stood out. ended in a huge flop at the box office.

Producer Dil Raju talks about the failure of Shaakuntalam

In a recent interview with a famous Telugu YouTube channel, producer Dil Raju spoke about the massive box office failure of Shaakuntalam which was one of the costliest projects of his career. The veteran producer, who is quite disheartened by the debacle of his ambitious venture, called him the “biggest jerk” of his 25-year film career. He also spoke at length about the best year of his movie career, in the interview.

“2017 was the best year of my career as I had many highly profitable releases including Nenu Local, Shatamanam Bhavati and Middle Class Abbayi,” Dil Raju recalled. “There are only four or five films out of my 50 production companies, which have turned out bad financially. Recently, Shaakuntalam has become the biggest jerk in my 25-year film career,” added the senior producer, who admitted that the reports of the film’s massive failure are indeed true.

Dil Raju reveals what went wrong

According to the producer, he had high expectations for Samantha Ruth Prabhu starring which was made on a budget of Rs. 65 Crores. But the epic drama has now suffered a loss of over Rs. 20 Crores. In the interview, Dil Raju revealed that he was ready for the Day 1 box office result as he knew that Shaakuntalam was not going to perform well at the box office. The producer revealed that he realized the film’s fate right after its premiere, where director Gunasekhar revealed mixed reviews from audiences.

About Shaakuntalam

The project is based on Kavi Kalidasa’s legendary play Abhijnana Shakuntalam. Malayalam actor Dev Mohan made his Telugu film debut playing the role of King Dushyanta in the film, which starred Sachin Khedekar, Mohan Babu, Aditi Balan, Ananya Nagalla, Prakash Raj, Gautami, Menaka, Kabir Bedi and baby Allu Arha, in supporting roles.

READ ALSO : Did Samantha Ruth Prabhu react to Shaakuntalam’s failure with a verse from the Bhagavad Gita?