By Surendra Bhatia
Films create their own fortune and so do stars. Saaho is one such that packed into its almost three hours a host of ambitious goals. While the hero, Prabhas, had been seen widely by Hindi film audiences in the two Bahubali mega-movies, Saaho is his first made-in-Hindi film, and so marks his debut as a Bollywood hero. Shraddha Kapoor stars in Saaho, which becomes her first South film, since Saaho has been made in Tamil and Telugu too. In fact, the film has been made thrice, so to say, in the above three languages. This means that each shot with dialogues at least has been shot three times, separately in each language. The purpose, ostensibly, seems to have been to cash in on the incredible success of Bahubali, in which Prabhas starred with great distinction. Perhaps, it was thought, if Bahubali 2: The Conclusion could be such a huge hit in Hindi despite being dubbed, a Prabhas film shot in Hindi could outdo it. Finally, the genre selected is action and on a big scale of production, much like Bahubali.
Saaho did very well in its opening days, in Hindi mainly. All things considered, the opening seemed much as if the film would be a runaway success. This ought to have been surprising because the critics were unimpressed and some quite vitriolic about the lack of watchable content in the film. In fact, even the word of mouth was negative. Yet, the film held its ground in the first weekend and started to lose steam only when the Tuesday shows opened, dropping markedly. Still, the Hindi version pulled in over Rs. 100 crore in five days but after that, it faced an uphill struggle. Had Saaho been a dubbed Hindi film, these would have been triumphant figures but for a film costing over Rs. 350 crore (all the languages put together), this was just not good enough, more so because the public reports were not good enough and also because the South versions were not performing as well as the Hindi version.
For a film that was panned by critics and which did not quite enjoy positive testimonials from the audience, how did Saaho manage such a good opening? Shraddha Kapoor can’t draw initial audiences. So it has to be Prabhas. Despite being a South hero, Prabhas has, apparently, built up a strong base with Hindi audiences with his Bahubali outings, and this helped Saaho to pull in large numbers only on Prabhas’ reputation and the fact that Saaho was another action film like Bahubali. It cannot be an ordinary hero who is able to fill cinemas to the tune of Rs. 100 crore in the first five days, especially with a film that isn’t a hit… it has to be a potential superstar. Of course, it is too early to tell if Prabhas will find the same kind of charisma in Hindi films that he has in Tamil and Telugu industries but Saaho is a good beginning for him. The film has proved that he can, with a better film, do very well as a Hindi film hero. Will he continue making Hindi films and how would Hindi audiences react to him in family dramas or romantic roles are ques- tions way ahead in the future. But, yes, if his next few Hindi films are entertaining, Bollywood audiences would embrace him as they have shown an appetite for him. Prabhas could well become a popular Hindi film hero. The test is in the future as is also his Bollywood stardom.
