'Bahubali: The Epic', a fresh edit of the director’s cut combining both original parts, was released amid huge hype. However, despite the massive expectations, the film failed to make a significant impact.
In the USA, collections have stalled around $900K, with efforts underway to push it past the $1 million mark.
Surprisingly, the Hindi and other regional audiences showed little interest in this fresh edit cut.
Even the Hollywood crowd, heavily targeted through widespread screenings in premium formats (though not dubbed into English but to make an impact), did not respond as expected.
The movie managed only a few reviews in Hollywood magazines under media network tie-ups, offering little help to its box office fate.
Industry circles say that if 'Bahubali: The Epic' had succeeded, it could have paved the way for a strong global launch of S.S. Rajamouli’s next project, tentatively titled Varanasi starring Mahesh Babu.
Nevertheless, Rajamouli remains a master strategist who knows how to keep Telugu cinema in the global spotlight.
