I feel very sad that Shaakuntalam underperformed at the box office, laments Madhoo : Bollywood News

There were a lot of hopes from filmmaker Gunasekhar’s Telugu movie Shaakuntalam, which released all over India recently on April 14. The film was based on the mythological story of Shakuntala and king Dushyanta. Plus, a name like Samantha Ruth Prabhu playing the titular role of Shakuntala added to the hopes. The role of Dushyanta was played by Dev Mohan.

I feel very sad that Shaakuntalam underperformed at the box office, laments Madhoo

Unfortunately, the film mostly received negative reviews and it failed at the box office. Veteran actress Madhoo has expressed disappointment at the film’s failure at the ticket window. She played the character of Menaka, the wife of Vishwamitra and mother of Shakuntala.

Speaking to DNA, she said, “I feel very sad that Shaakuntalam 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. 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.”

Madhoo also pointed out that one can’t predict which film would do well by taking names of the recent hits. “Shaakuntalam 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. 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. We never anticipated that the film (Shaakuntalam) would underperform at the box office. So, it just hurts you because this is the film where everyone worked really hard,” she added.

Madhoo stated that Mani Ratnam’s Ponniyin Selvan 1 at least did well in its original language, which makes it a successful film. “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, but I feel Shaakuntalam didn’t achieve that success as well,” she said.

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