Madhoo says dull box office performance of Samantha's Shakuntalam 'hurts': 'Baahubali, RRR chali...' | Exclusive

Veteran actress Madhoo Shah, who was seen as Apsara Menaka in Samantha Ruth Prabhu's Shakuntalam, opens up about the dull performance of the anticipated film. While promoting her upcoming series Fireflies: Parth Aur Jugnu, Madhoo states that Shakuntalam's weak box office reception is heartbreaking. 

While speaking to DNA India, Madhoo says the makers were dedicated and honest towards the project. "I feel very sad that Shakuntalam has underperformed because the makers and producers gave it all. From the pre-production to release, unhone kahi bhi us picture ko dheela nahi chhoda. After shooting and dubbing, they spent an entire year on CGI (computer-generated imagery). They never took the process for granted and made sure to make it a visual treat. While shooting, I saw they never gave any stress to artists or technicians. They took care of our comfort as well." 

Citing examples of previous pan-India hits, Madhoo says that one cannot jot down the exact reason behind the success or failure of any film. "Shakuntalam has a strong South Indian flavour, with mythology. Ab Baahubali chali... RRR chali gayi... jab koi picture chal jaati hai, toh you don't know.. logic nahi hota (Bahubali, RRR worked. There is no exact reason behind the success of a film). Nobody expected that Baahubali would be such a gigantic hit. Aachi bhi bani ho toh bhi itna bada success kisi ne expect nahi kiya tha (Even if the film is good, no one had expected it to be a big hit). We never anticipated that the film would underperform at the box office. So it just hurts you because this is the film where everyone worked really hard. 

The actress explains that Shakuntalam should have worked in the original Telugu language. "Ponniyin Selvan 1 didn't do well in Hindi, but it was a blockbuster in Tamil. Everybody feels ki Hindi mein audience ne connect nahi kiya koi baat nahi, but at least original language mein toh chali (If the Hindi audience didn't connect that's fine, but at least the film found its audience in original language), but I feel Shakuntalam didn't achieve that success as well."

Samantha Ruth Prabhu's mythological drama, Shakuntalam was one of the anticipated movies in Telugu. The film had a pan-India release, and it was expected to become the next big blockbuster for the actress. However, the film opened with mixed response and it underperformed at the box office. Madhoo-starrer Fireflies will stream on ZEE5 from May 5.