In a hasty attempt to claw back some cash after a pretty tough run at the box office, the Prabhas-led horror-comedy The Raja Saab has landed on JioHotstar. This digital premiere comes on the back of the film struggling to find its footing just a few weeks ago when it finally hit the domestic big screen.
The idea to team up with Prabhas on this project represented a bit of a risk - one that he probably calculated would be worth taking, given the potentially high reward. However, stepping into a project as unpredictable & genre-bending as this one was a far cry from the usual high-stakes, world-building epics that Prabhas is used to starring in - movies like Kalki 2898 AD & Salaar. He was likely looking to shift his persona from the "Rebel Star" to a more lighthearted role, one that he was known for back in the early days of his career.
Unfortunately, the transition didn't go as smoothly as he may have hoped. To begin with, the project was intended to be a mid-budget "quickie", a ₹500 million ($6M) endeavour to help get People Media Factory back on its feet after they got left reeling over Adipurush. However, the production period stretched on for an epic 30 months.
The budget when the project started was a relatively modest ₹4 billion ($48M), but the costs just kept on ballooning out of control thanks to the escalating VFX costs & the shift from regular horror to the more elaborate "fantasy-horror" aesthetic. The financial bar for the film to be considered a success became a whole lot higher.
To help ease some of the financial pressures, Prabhas reportedly took a 33% cut to his salary. Still though - the fact that the film's tone shifted so much between the first act & the second half - from slapstick regional comedy to a full-blown psychological thriller set against the backdrop of the fictional Devanagari Empire - ended up alienating a big chunk of the audience.
The trades are saying that the distributors are looking at a staggering loss of around ₹1.6 billion - and while the JioHotstar acquisition, which was valued at approximately ₹1.65 billion, might provide a vital safety net for the producers, it's still a long way off from setting any real records. That's particularly true when you compare it to Kalki - a film that set a new benchmark for digital acquisition with a record-breaking ₹3.75 billion.
Only time will tell whether the "Extended Cut" will be enough to get people talking about the film & help change its fortunes. For the time being though, The Raja Saab is a pretty stark illustration of just how difficult it can be for even the biggest of stars to turn a film around when the budget gets out of control & the creative vision just isn't quite coming together.