Tamil film Lal Salaam with Superstar Rajinikanth in a supporting role turned out to be an outright disaster at the box office. The marketing strategy projecting Rajinikanth’s role as a cameo instead of promoting it as an impactful role seems to have backfired badly as the film failed to rake in significant numbers in the first weekend.
The Aishwarya Rajinikanth directional has resulted in a big embarrassment because it will impact Rajinikanth’s image very badly, especially after the blockbuster success of Jailer. Even though Rajinikanth played a brief role, Lal Salaam was widely viewed as his regular film. Moreover, the association of AR Rahman also further raised the stakes on the film. But, the dismal numbers till now hint that the film will end up as one of the biggest flops in Tamil.
In Telugu, Lal Salaam collected a meagre 50 lakhs which is a disaster of epic proportions for a Rajinikanth film. The worldwide gross of Lal Salaam is less than 15 Crores in 5 days and it is unlikely to add any noticeable numbers in the full run.
The cliched storyline and monotonous narration played the spoilsport for Lal Salaam. Even Rajinikanth’s screen presence also didn’t help the box office prospects due to the substandard direction.