Film trade’s hopes that the collections of Dabangg 3 would improve were dashed. The film is heading towards being a major disaster. There was a drop in the collection on Day 2 sending alarm bells across the trade about the commercial viability of Salman’s Dabangg franchise.
Now post-weekend on Monday the collections have dropped drastically, by up to 60 percent in several areas. Blaming the student unrest for what is clearly debacle won’t work since the law-and-order situation has improved wherever unrest was reported.
It is to be noted that the first film in the Dabangg series directed by Anurag Kashyap’s brother Abhinav Kashyap released in 2012, was a spectacular success. However, the second film in the series released two years later directed by Salman’s brother Arbaaz Khan, was not a major success, at least not by the standards set by Salman at the box-office.
Dabangg 3 will undoubtedly perform even lower at the box-office than Dabangg 2.
This brings us to the question: Has the Dabangg franchise lost its shine over the years?
One hears plans for Dabangg 4 are already afoot. If so, Salman should immediately ask the original director Abhinav Kashyap (where has he gone??!!) to return to rescue the franchise from further damage. And the director should be allowed to do his job. If and when Dabangg 4 happens Salman should not ghost-direct the product.
Significantly Abhinav Kashyap had originally conceived the corrupt cop Chulbul Pandey as a negative character. Randeep Hooda was signed to play Chulbul Pandey in the original Dabangg film. Once Salman came into Dabangg Chulbul became “cute”, “mischievous”, “endearing” etc. And that’s where the corruption was transferred from the cop-hero to the product itself.