Raj Kundra scandal responsible for 'Hungama 2' being flop show?
Shilpa Shetty recently returned to the silver screen after over 13 years with Hungama 2. Sadly for her, the movie received a disastrous response, and her husband Raj Kundra's arrest in a pornographic racket just days before didn't really help with the publicity. Reportedly, sources close to makers are more or less pinning the blame of the Priyadarshan directorial's poor show on Kundra's scandal.
Quoting anonymous sources, a Bollywood Hungama report said, "It (the scandal) did affect the film's performance. There was a campaign on social media to boycott the film. Disney+ Hotstar didn't take it seriously. Or maybe they just ignored it in the hope that the film won't get affected." To recall, producer Ratan Jain earlier claimed the case won't affect the film in any way.
After the movie's release on July 23, Shetty promoted it on social media. Her post highlighted the team's hard work, stating how "the film shouldn't suffer." But her post was flooded with negative comments. Hungama 2 also stars Paresh Rawal, Meezaan Jafri, and Pranitha Subhash.
As per the estimates of the insiders, the comedy film is said to have lost at least 15% viewership on streamer Disney+ Hotstar due to the porn film case and Kundra's involvement in it. Looking at how Hungama 2 fared, apparently the team behind Shetty's next, Nikamma, has also taken some tough calls. Even though the film is complete, makers have indefinitely postponed it.
"The producers, Sony Pictures, were waiting to see how Hungama 2 was received. Now that the verdict is clear, the release of Nikamma has been postponed indefinitely," reported Bollywood Hungama. However, are these claims substantial? Many movies have faced online backlash before their release but reigned on the Box Office later. But without any substance in the film, that's hard to pull off.
In our review, we wrote, "Hungama 2 has nothing good to offer and can be skipped." It was filled with "cringe comedy, dad jokes, stereotyping, and awful song remakes." Then again, reports of Kundra's alleged connection to the abusive and exploitatory racket amounted to bad press. Meanwhile, Kundra was denied bail on July 28 after being sent to 14-day judicial custody until August 10.
