Salaar: Will Silence Backfire?

Salaar is the most important film for Prabhas in the recent past. It is coming at a time when Prabhas is in a rough patch with Saaho, Radhe Shyam, and Adipurush failing at the box office. The collaboration with KGF director Prashanth Neel is the mainstay for this Prabhas starrer. But the promotions are not matching the kind of prominence the film carries in Prabhas’s filmography.

Salaar is hitting theaters worldwide in 11 days and the only promotional content from the team is a set of posters and a trailer. There is no noise on the pre-release event either. Had the team planned an event, they should’ve applied for permission from the police department and started the preparation already. But there is no trace of it at the Hyderabad police department. Same in Bengaluru and Chennai as well.

Prabhas’s brand value might bring the openings but the content is the one that will pull the big revenues. For the content to go deeper into the public, promotions are the key. We saw this in the case of Animal where the trailer sparked debates in regard to alpha masculinity and brought great hype even before the release.

Salaar’s trailer opened to a talk that it has KGF shades. Then there was a speculation that the team is preparing another trailer. But this second trailer has also taken the back seat as the team hasn’t yet made an announcement on it. No one knows when, or ‘if’ it will be released.

Let alone swashbuckling events and tours, Salaar team hasn’t even sat down for an interview with media channels. To put that into perspective, team RRR, Rajamouli, NTR, and Ram Charan were touring entire India and giving 6-7 interviews every day, and also holding events in Mumbai, Chennai, and Hyderabad.

Another hardship for Salaar is it is clashing with SRK’s Dunki. While Dunki might not be carrying huge buzz, underestimating SRK and legendary Raj Kumar Hirani could be fatal. But Salaar makers are having none of it as they are maintaining stoic silence with 10 days to go for the big release, perhaps they are confident that the content will speak for itself. Will this silence backfire? Or will the film pack enough content to overhaul the weak promotions and still go bonkers at ticket counters?