It doesn’t look like a dream run for NTR Jr’s ambitious Devara Part 1 would be possible, at least not in the North Belt. The abysmally low advance booking for the 350-crore purported epic has shocked the producers.
Also Read: Devara Movie Review
“We never expected this kind of poor response in the North. It is almost like an insult to Tarak (that’s the name NTR likes among his friends). He is the superstar from Rajamouli’s RRR. He created this project with director Koratala Siva as his follow-up Pan India blockbuster after RRR. But the fact is, in Rajamouli’s films the star is Rajamouli,” a source very close to the Devara project confides in this writer.
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Apparently, NTR has walked away with a fee of 65 crores, while Saif Ali Khan has been paid Rs 45-50 crores. Janhvi has been paid Rs 15 crores which is more than what she gets in Bollywood.
If the Hindi version underperforms, the losses could be insurmountable. The producers in a panic have taken a last-minute decision to shorten the film. The original length was nearly three hours. Now , seven minutes of the playing time has been slashed to make the film a tighter viewing experience. But is this token tightening of nuts and bolts actually going to help the machinery function better for the Hindi audiences?