Shankar and Kamal Haasan’s Indian 3—if at all the film releases—will face a gigantic financial hurdle, and it would need to gross a minimum of 417 crore to break even and avoid further substantial losses. Read further to know why!
The saga of Indian 2 has been nothing less than a nightmare. It was trashed at the box office and the film continued to face incessant criticism following its release on Netflix. Right from the beginning, Indian 2 faced several setbacks that hampered its progress.
Troubles kicked in when Lyca Productions, the studio which bankrolled the film, filed a lawsuit against Shankar alleging he was neglecting the project. At the heart of the legal battle was Shankar’s lack of commitment since Lyca wanted to stop him from working on other films until Indian 2 was finished. After a lot of legal hassles, both parties were sorted out. However, the budget of the film outrageously increased.
What was initially planned as a single feature with a budget of 235 crore underwent repeated delays and cost overruns. Financial hurdles brought the production to a grinding halt and forced Shankar to divert his attention to Game Changer.
However, with the massive success of Kamal Haasan’s Vikram, Indian 2 came back to life by adding another 150 crore to its funding. The costs kept on increasing, and finally compelled the producers to take a call for a two-part film with the total budget crossing 500 crore.
Indian 2 was ultimately a gigantic disappointment at the box office and critically. After such a long production and with so much expected of it, the response to the film was bad. The box office collections were poor, and it was clear within days of the film’s release that it wouldn’t recover the cost.
Globally, Indian 2 could rake in only 150.94 crore, far off the 250 crore needed just to recover the cost in India. This means that, by earning only 83 crore domestically, there was a shortfall of 167 crore, which meant a loss of almost 67 percent from the total budget.
Indian 3 Plans
Initial plans were to start the post-production of Game Changer and Indian 3 simultaneously before the release of Indian 2. However, as Indian 2 has not gone according to his expectations, he seems to have re-worked his plans. Shankar will now fully focus on Ram Charan and Kiara Advani-starrer and start working on Indian 3 only after Game Changer hits the screens. The fallout of Indian 2 has had its toll on Indian 3, and no one is leaving takers for it. Under those circumstances, Shankar has decided to concentrate on making Game Changer a success before he attempts to revive Indian 3.
Now, the point is that should Kamal Haasan’s Indian 3 come up, there will be immense pressure to deliver box office results!
This experience taught me one lesson: budget overruns are not to be made. If filmmakers can’t hold tight control over production costs, it becomes financially huge, as seen in the case of Indian 2.