Overconfidence results in huge loss for Dil Raju and Gunasekhar

Gunasekhar’s ambitious and big-budget period drama ‘Shaakunthalam’, starring Samantha in the titular role, bombed at the box office in the first weekend itself due to which it failed to recover even 5 Crores from the ticket windows. As per trade estimates, this is the biggest loss-making venture for both Dil Raju and Gunasekhar who jointly bankrolled it with a whopping budget of over 65 Crores including all costs.

Usually, producers will be on the safe side irrespective of the theatrical results because they close all deals before release itself. If both Dil Raju and Gunasekhar followed this strategy, they would have pocketed decent table profits with Shaakunthalam because of Samantha’s star power and the craze garnered by this particular project at the beginning of its shoot. However, the overconfidence and over-ambition displayed by both Dil Raju and Gunasekhar now resulted in more than 20 Crores in loss for them.

The streaming rights of Shaakunthalam fetched more than 30 Crores. They quoted exorbitant prices for the satellite rights due to overconfidence just to cash in on the craze. But, no one came forward to take the rights at the price projected by the makers. Dil Raju and Gunasekhar felt that the film will receive better deals after its release and went ahead without closing the deal for satellite rights.

As the film ended as a huge debacle, it will be very difficult for the makers to sell the satellite rights now for a handsome price. They might recoup only a minor chunk of their investment through satellite deals. Talk in the industry is that they will need to compensate the distributors for the heavy losses incurred by the theatricals. Overall, both Dil Raju and Gunasekhar might need to return around 20 Crores due to their greedy tactics.