Why was Ranveer Singh's Cirkus rejected so summarily by the audience?

There are the flops. Then there are the historic flops, like Cirkus. The losses are yet to be computed. But an intelligent estimate makes Cirkus one of the biggest disasters in recent times.

Trade guru Taran Adarsh feels Cirkus had it coming. “There are multiple reasons why Cirkus did not take off. First and foremost, the trailer failed to create any impact whatsoever. The first impression has to be solid, which was missing in this case. Two, every Rohit Shetty film is eagerly awaited, but not just the trailer, even the songs (barring one) or the subsequent promotional activities failed to create any impact. Three, the content of the film was an absolute downer. People expect loads of fun and entertainment in a Rohit Shetty movie, which, sadly, was missing in Cirkus. The jokes were flat and the comedy of errors just didn’t work. Even the performances of the lead actors, mainly Ranveer Singh , lacked enthusiasm. The show clearly belonged to Sanjay Mishra and Johny Lever.”

Trade analyst Atul Mohan agrees with Taran. “The indication started coming in right from the moment the trailer came out. It was not appreciated or liked by the audience. But at the same time, the trailers of Rohit Shetty films have always been weak but they always generated the necessary hype which transformed into big opening numbers. But this time it didn’t work the trick. Post-pandemic the audience has become excessively selective. If the first impression goes wrong then you have low chances of bouncing back. Earlier the people at least used to come to cinemas on the first day and then the fate of the film was decided upon its merits. Rejection or selection happened after the first couple of shows. But now the scenario is different.”

Atul also blames Ranveer Singh’s controversial image for the Cirkus fiasco. “There are talks that Ranveer Singh post-nude photo campaign has devalued his image and standing. The bad reviews pouring in immediately after the first show started the downslide of the film. Already a hit in India, Avatar became the first choice for audience in its second weekend too.”

For producer and trade analyst Girish Johar, the disappointment of seeing Cirkus bite the dust was tremendous. “For me personally, expectations from Cirkus was sky high, it had everything going for it. Mammoth cast, huge mounting, top commercial and most successful director, perfect release period, no competition from other releases and audiences were looking forward to neat clean mad family comedy from Rohit Shetty. But I believe things went downhill the moment the trailer was released. There was no connect, film looked lavish but with no soul. The comedy couldn’t tickle or even tease the audiences for more. Further, the songs released, even of Deepika & later others, took the expectations more downhill. So the audiences simply avoided it. It got a project kind of a feel rather than being a typical Rohit Shetty branded entertainer, which audiences are completely avoiding, no matter what cast is headlining it.”

Girish feels Avatar also played villain for Cirkus. “ Avatar 2 was lapped up despite higher ticket of it. Clearly, people chose Avatar 2 for their Christmas cinema outing. This is one of those rare films which Rohit Shetty has backfired but he has enough solid armoury to light up the screen with his next outing, which everyone is so much looking forward to.”

Trade analyst Amod Mehra lays the blame for the failure squarely on Rohit Shetty. “The only reason I can contribute to the failure of Circus is Rohit Shetty.. not only he actually started believing he is the ultimate director but this misconception led to arrogance and misconception. He should avoid flattery and concentrate on making good cinema .. good cinema will get him success”

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.

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