How can anyone forget Mohan Babu? The veteran actor, who was once dubbed ‘Collection King’ for his potential in drawing crowds to theatres, has now become the only star to collect zero share (quite literally). His last theatrical release, Son of India (2022), was an ultra-disastrous outing at the box office. Mohan Babu is a classic case of an actor ruining his career to its fullest. All of this is now relevant because another verteran actor in the same film fraternity has been unknowingly headed in the same direction: Akkineni Nagarjuna.
Regarded as ‘Manmadhudu’ for his dashing looks, Nagarjuna has always had a strong inclination towards experimentation, particularly in choosing debutant directors. Though this style of script selection has yielded classics like Shiva (1990) in the beginning of his career, it has now pulled him to the lowest point in his career. Its no surprise that Nag has the smallest market among the Big 4 (with others being Chiranjeevi, Balakrishna, and Venkatesh).
Things got so worse that he had to come up with a rural drama, the only genre that worked for him lately, that too a remake, during the biggest season of films, Sankranti, so he could score a ‘hit’, and save his career. Though the film Naa Saami Ranga (2024) was a safe venture for buyers in Telugu states, it is a complete washout in overseas territories, which couldn’t even recover 50% of the investment, even with positive talk. The film’s pre-release business was valued at just 15 crore INR, which is less than or just on par with any of the industry’s tier-2 heroes. The day-wise numbers reveal that the movie relied solely on the festival weekend and has completely crashed on weekdays. This is a deeply saddening revelation for an actor of Nag’s stature.
It should be noted that Nag has had a strong fan following among the masses, particularly among women, till late 2000s. Though it may seem too late, ‘The King’ can still make a comeback into the array of mainstream commercial films. We hope he does!
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