Balakrishna's re-releases have consistently failed to enthuse his fan base. Ahead of the re-release of Aditya 369 recently, he thundered that the re-release will create wonders (in terms of Box-Office collections). The classic actually tanked. Last week, Lakshmi Narasimha flopped big-time. Earlier, even B Gopal's trend-setting Samarasimha Reddy and Narasimha Naidu flopped at the BO upon their re-release.
What has not gone right for Balakrishna's re-releases? The failure of Aditya 369 and Lakshmi Narasimha is not hard to analyze. The former was a path-breaking sci-fi movie when it was released in 1993. Since then, the audience have tasted one too many sci-fi movies made by Hollywood. When you watch Aditya 369 today, its logical incoherence would become obvious. Lakshmi Narasimha is a cop story with little to offer in terms of novelty after the first watch; it's a character-based movie with some old-school elements.
The failure of Samarasimha Reddy and Narasimha Naidu is surprising, though. The two mass masala action films feature some of the best punchy sequences and masterfully-tuned songs by Mani Sharma. Re-releases hinge on the nostalgia factor. The below-average performance of the two movies upon their re-release suggests that not all trend-setters carry the nostalgia scent. Khaleja is not trend-setting but it amassed very good figures last month.
