The movie Samrat Prithviraj was in news from the time it was announced and it was the first historical movie by Akshay Kumar. Produced by Yashraj Films, the movie was directed by Dr. Chandraprakash Dwivedi who is known for acting and directing the famous show Chanakya in the 90s. A big star backed by a production house like Yashraj, Samrat Prithviraj was one of the most anticipated movies of 2022 and its colossal failure sent a shock wave in the industry. In this article, we will try to find out a few reasons why the movie didn’t work on the business front.
With the success of tha Bahubali series and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Bajiron Mastani and Padmaavat, many historical epic movies were announced and the most exciting among them was Samrat Prithviraj. It was produced by Yashraj Films, directed by Dr. Chandraprakash Dwivedi, and superstar Akshay Kumar was signed to play the titular role of Samrat Prithviraj Chauhan, and former Miss India Manushi Chillar was making her Bollywood debut with it.
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The teaser of the movie was released last year the movie was scheduled to release in January 2022 but due to the outbreak of the second corona wave, the movie was pushed further for release in June. But when the trailer of the movie was released it got mixed to negative reactions and many found Akshay Kumar totally unfit as Samrat Prithviraj Chauhan. Many noticed his look was the same as his character Bala in the comedy movie Housefull 4. Akshay Kumar is known for doing multiple movies per year and finishing a movie in less than 45 days. Such a working style is fine for the kind of commercial movies Akshay Kumar do but a movie like Samrat Prithviraj needed an actor who can dedicate at least one year to the movie. Making historical epic movies is very different from making other masala movies as such movies need lots of research. Mughal-E-Azam is one of the greatest period movies ever in India and it took director K Asif more than a decade to complete the movie as he didn’t want to compromise anything in the movie. Sanjay Leela Bhansali had the idea of Bajirao Mastani for many years and Ranvir Singh went bald for the movie and for Padmaavat, Ranvir Singh totally got immersed in the character of evil king Allauddin Khilji. Prabhas gave five years of his life to Bahubali and here is Akshay Kumar who finished the movie in only 45 days. It was clear that for Akshay Kumar, it was just one of the dozen movies he does every year and that is when Samrat Prithviraj faltered. The trailer was quite underwhelming and made many disinterested in the movie.
Along with Akshay Kumar and Manushi Chillar, the movie also had Sanjay Dutt, Sonu Sood, Ashutosh Rana, Sakshi Tanwar, and Manav Vij as Mahmud Ghori. The movie was released on 3rd June and the opening was quite below the mark. It didn’t get favorable reviews for critics also and many questioned the casting of Akshay Kumar in the movie whose performance in the movie was below the mark. The movie was made with a budget of around 200 crores and it’s estimated that it will only collect less than 70 crores making it one of the biggest disasters ever. Along with the casting of Akshay Kumar, many complained that the movie emphasized more the love angle between Prithiviraj and Sanyogita. The war scenes which are the most important things in historical movies were a big letdown and overall the movie failed on various fronts. The movie also got affected because of the continued good performance of Kartik Aaryan’s horror-comedy ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’ which turned out to be a blockbuster at the box office and still getting an audience favoring it more than Samrat Prithviraj. It’s time for filmmakers to realize that just signing a big star is not a guarantee of success at the box office.
