Shaakuntalam Box Office: Samantha's epic drama is struggling to stay afloat

Just like its namesake Samantha's fantasy romance-drama is struggling to be remembered by audiences, the movie has only managed to gross around 1.5 crores at the end of its second day.

The mostly negative reaction from critics and audiences was the early warning signs that the movie was heading for a terrible run at the box office.

The movie is based on the play by Kalidasa and has been told and retold multiple times, in the form of books, TV shows, and movies.

This latest adaptation by director Gunasekhar stars Samantha in the lead. The first trailer for the movie was launched a few months ago and received mixed responses from audiences.

The movie is a pan-Indian release dubbed in all major Indian languages and was made on a budget of 80 crores.

The movie was initially supposed to hit theaters in November 2022 but was pushed back to February 2023 in order to release movie in 3D.

And recently the release of the movie was pushed back to April 14, in order to improve the movie's visual effects which many considered lackluster after the release of the trailer.

Sekhar V. Joseph is will in charge of the cinematography, editing will be handled by Prawin Pudi and the music will be helmed by Mani Sharma.

The movie is produced by Neelima Guna under the banner of Gunaa Teamworks. The film was shot extensively around Hyderabad, including Ramoji Film City.

The supporting cast of the Shaakuntalam includes Dev Prabhu, Mohan Babu, Aditi Balan, Ananya Nagalla, Prakash Raj, Kabir Duhan Singh, and Madhoo.

Currently, Samantha is preparing for her role in the upcoming Hindi action series Citadel for Amazon Prime Video which is a spinoff series of the upcoming Amazon series of the same name, which stars Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra in the lead.