Why is Chiranjeevi failing the box-office test?

Clinging on to his past will not help the Telugu star. He needs to change his strategies to regain stardom

The success of Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Tamil thriller ‘Vikram’ has proved once again that what matters the most for a movie’s success is its story. Of course, it has big guns like Kamal Haasan, Vijay Sethupathi, and Fahadh Faasil, and it helps that Anirudh Ravichander’s music sets the right mood for all the emotional rollercoaster rides and fight sequences in the crime thriller. But imagine how awful ‘Vikram’ would have been had the foundation been a mess?

Although Sethupathi and Fahadh Faasil have earned numerous pats on their backs for their roles, ‘Vikram’ is more of a comeback vehicle for Kamal Haasan, whose last on-screen outing was ‘Vishwaroopam II’ in 2018. Among the veteran superstars, Mammootty has never taken a break since the 1980s. His counterparts in the South, such as Rajinikanth and Chiranjeevi, had stayed away from the ethereal pull of cinema for a few years in the previous decade.

Now that they are back with renewed vigour, I hope the directors are well-equipped to handle them and the expectations we’re harbouring. Chiranjeevi’s recent release, ‘Acharya’, which also had his son and bankable star Ram Charan, tanked at the box office mainly due to its lacklustre storyline. This happened to Rajinikanth’s comeback drama ‘Lingaa’ (2014), as well. The failure taught him to free himself from the clutches of old-school filmmaking. His graph wasn’t entirely consistent post the debacle of ‘Lingaa’ but he did score a few hits and was brave enough to collaborate with promising filmmakers.

Chiranjeevi is struggling on that front. Even now, he’s stepping into the shoes of characters that fall way below his actual age. He can certainly look and feel young but hanging on to the coattails of a bygone era isn’t going to revive his stardom. In ‘Vikram’, you’ll realise that Kamal Haasan’s character is largely seen through the eyes of others in the first half.

For him, this kind of a narrative path must have been a cakewalk, as he’s experimented throughout his career. Will Chiranjeevi be willing to take this route? From the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the West to ‘RRR’ in India, directors have roped in multiple A-list stars to make their movies as exciting as possible to pave the way for global acceptance. ‘Acharya’ and ‘Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy’ (2019) are also multi-starrers. However, mediocre action movies cannot make much noise.

Balakrishna, Venkatesh, and Nagarjuna, who’re placed on the same league as Chiranjeevi in Telugu cinema, don’t have to worry about staying relevant since their outputs have remained constant. Many of their movies have misfired, too, but they never took long breaks, unlike the latter, who ventured into politics and missed connecting with his fans through his films. Despite the lean patch, Chiranjeevi hasn’t completely faded away from the collective memory of movie-goers. His movies are still made on budgets that go upwards of Rs 100 crore. But if this dismal trend persists, it’ll be hard for him regain his glory.

‘Godfather’ and ‘Bhola Shankar’, the films that Chiranjeevi is currently working on, are remakes of the Malayalam thriller ‘Lucifer’ (2019) and the outdated Tamil movie ‘Vedalam’ (2015), respectively. How can you expect cinebuffs to be excited about these projects? Right from the outset, they don’t seem promising. Instead, off the top of my head, I can think of three cool, new-generation filmmakers the Mega Star can join hands with – Nag Ashwin, Praveen Sattaru, and Vivek Athreya.

Unlike 1978, the year in which Chiranjeevi entered the industry, he cannot feature in multiple movies a year given his age and the time required for big-scale projects. He quickly needs to get his ducks in a row and let us roll in his charisma.