'The Greatest of All Time', starring Thalapathy Vijay in a dual role, was released in theatres on Thursday. On Friday, which was its Day 2, the film completely collapsed at the box office in the Telugu States. Mythri Movie Makers, which released the movie in AP and Telangana, is staring at huge losses. The film is going to be counted as one of the biggest disasters ever, both among straight and dubbed ones. It will be in the company of the likes of 'Liger', 'Acharya', 'Bholaa Shankar' and the more recent 'Mr. Bachchan'.
GOAT's box office failure is likely to damage the market for Telugu-dubbed Tamil films in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in the near future. Even popular stars like Rajinikanth, Ajith and Kamal Haasan may see a decline in the value of their dubbed release rights. The disastrous performance of 'Indian 2' recently only adds another layer of trouble for dubbed movies.
'The Greatest of All Time' has been viewed differently by the Tamil audience. A lot of references in the film are an ode to several Tamil hits, including Vijay's own 'Kaththi'. But these references fall flat on their face in Telugu because Vijay is not a native superstar for our audience. Our audience can't even get most of those references.
The Telugu version of 'The Greatest of All Time' should have been 15 minutes shorter. There is no justification for the three silly dance-based songs in the Telugu version.
