‘The Ghost’ Didn’t Teach Any Lesson ?

All of a sudden, Akhil Akkineni’s latest movie “Agent” announced the film’s arrival on Sankranthi 2023. That led to various discussions and debates about the film’s real potential to compete with the likes of mighty Megastar Chiru, Superstar Prabhas and God of Masses Balayya. One wonders why Akhil and his producers took this decision in the first place. 

Even though if one of the films featuring the stalwarts moves to a different date, surely competing with two big superstars at the box office will not be fetching anything for the young hero Akhil Akkineni who has to score a blockbuster at any cost this time. Director Surender Reddy might have carved out a terrific action entertainer for Akhil’s fans, but then, the presence of Chiru and Balayya is a real threat for the youngster as they are those legends who could pull masses to theatres quite comfortably and easily.

If at all Akhil competes with them, even if he gets a blockbuster stalk, surely he will be missing out on the biggest opening that he could get on any other Friday if he comes as a solo release. While Akhil might get theatres due to the possible influence of the producer of the film, surely he will not be getting big openings for a movie that has overshot the budget and needs nearly ₹60-80 crores to be recovered from the box office. 

On that note, one has to identify the fact that “The Ghost” is not a really bad film, but it has lost to “Godfather” at the box office in a big way. Had the film been released without any competition, surely it would have made big bucks even with the below-average talk it got at the time of release. That makes us ask Akhil if he hasn’t learnt anything from his father’s recent flopbuster.