Kabzaa’s poor box office: R Chandru blames tech issues in multiplexes

Kabzaa has been in theatres for a week, with worldwide collections falling steadily by the day. R Chandru, who has produced and directed the film, has claimed that the film’s a financial success, based not only on the box office figures, but pre-release non-theatrical rights also, has given him the confidence to go ahead with his plans to make the sequel. This despite overwhelming backlash against the filmmaker, following negative reports about the film and the fact that he did not use any of the three superstars at his disposal – Upendra, Kiccha Sudeep and Shivarajkumar – effectively.

Speaking to multiple media outlets over the last few days, Chandru has been addressing the film’s falling box office collections. He remains bullish that Kabzaa had a good opening and then went on to make comparisons between big film releases that start well and then dwindle, as against content-oriented ones that begin on a smaller scale and then grow based on positive word of mouth. His film, says Chandru, belongs to the first category – a big-ticket movie that had a huge opening and then saw a decline because “everyone’s seen the film by now”.

Read also: Kabzaa box office collection day 7: Abysmal overseas collections, poor weekly returns - here's how the Upendra starrer fared 

& here's our review:

Kabzaa review: Time to sue R Chandru for the brain damage caused by his KGF copy 

The filmmaker also sought to blame multiplex chains for the film’s poor showing claiming that they’ve been tinkering with the audio and set it at lower levels, which, in turn, reduces electricity costs. Chandru claims that this had been brought to his attention and that he has been trying to rectify the same. This, however, is contrary to reports from audiences across board who have taken to social media about Kabzaa being ‘too loud’ and blaming Ravi Basrur’s ear-drum popping music and background score for it.

Kabzaa, according to trade trackers, has managed to bring in some revenue from its Kannada version, with the dubbed versions finding literally no takers. The Hindi dubbed version, Underworld Ka Kabzaa brought in Rs 3.4 crore in its first week, while the Telugu version got Rs 2.4 crore. Tamil Nadu and Kerala contributed just over Rs 1 crore to the film’s box office revenue, indicating that Chandru’s big pan-India dreams didn’t take flight after all.