‘The Raja Saab lost its identity’: Veteran filmmaker on why Prabhas’ Rs 450 cr film crashed after a Rs 100 cr opening

He further added that the project gradually moved away from its original vision. “As the film progressed, they began thinking about making it a pan-India project. They kept making changes, spent nearly two years reworking and reshooting the film, and moved away from the intended story. If they had stuck to the original concept, the budget would have been much lower. Whenever the makers try to add ‘pan-India’ elements, a film deviates from its purpose. As a result, both the budget and production time increase, and in the end, it rarely works in their favour.”

Highlighting how the film could have been financially successful with better planning, Bharadwaja said, “The film still managed to collect around Rs 100 crore. If the budget had been kept at Rs 100 crore, it would have generated healthy profits. Today, filmmakers are so focused on making big-budget films that they have forgotten how to make memorable cinema.”

‘Filmmakers spend 80% on stars, 20% on films’

According to Bharadwaja, the trend began after the massive success of Baahubali. “After SS Rajamouli brought global recognition to Telugu and Indian cinema with Baahubali, many started believing that simply investing huge amounts of money would bring them the same level of fame. They want their films to be compared to Hollywood. Since then, everyone has been chasing the pan-India formula. Making one or two pan-India films a year is not wrong, but trying to make every film pan-India is where the industry goes wrong.”

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He also pointed out the difference in budget allocation. “What people forget is that a big-budget film should invest money into filmmaking, not just star salaries. Rajamouli may be working with budgets of over a thousand crores, but nearly 80 percent of that goes into production quality and only 10 to 20 percent into fees. Others do the opposite — they spend 80 percent on star remuneration and struggle to make the film with what remains.”

‘Films that don’t chase pan-India tag succeed’

Citing successful examples, Thammareddy said that films rooted in strong storytelling have performed better at the box office. “Sankranti Vastunam was made on a budget of Rs 60 crore and went on to earn over Rs 300 crore. This year, Chiranjeevi’s Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu is also doing well because it did not chase the pan-India tag.”

He further explained that even Hindi cinema rarely aggressively markets films as pan-India projects. “Most Hindi films are simply dubbed and released in other languages while staying true to their roots. The same happened with Kantara. It was a deeply local story based on a small region of Karnataka. They did not chase the pan-India formula or overspend on star salaries, yet it became a nationwide success.”

Drawing more comparisons, Thammareddy said, “Dhurandhar worked because it was a stylised film that focused on the journey of multiple characters, not just the hero. Today, in the name of big-budget cinema, filmmakers keep elevating the hero with loud background scores instead of telling a meaningful story. In Dhurandhar, the hero was not artificially glorified. Similarly, Gadar 2, made on a budget of Rs 70 crore, earned over Rs 800 crore.”

The Raja Saab box office

Despite opening with over Rs 100 crore worldwide on its first day, The Raja Saab witnessed a steep decline from Day 2 onward. By Day 12, the film’s daily collection dropped to Rs 75 lakh. According to industry tracker Sacnilk, the film has crossed the Rs 200 crore mark worldwide but remains far from recovering its massive production budget.