Both Samantha’s Shaakuntalam And NTR’s Sakunthala, Released 57 Years Apart, Failed At Box Office – News18

Samantha Ruth Prabhu’s film Shaakuntalam was released on April 14 but was not able to impress the viewers at the box office. The critics were highly disappointed and Shaakuntalm turned out to be a huge commercial failure. According to reports, the film was made on a budget of Rs 60 crore and earned 20 crore at the box office. But do you know that not only did Samantha’s film turn out to be a box office failure but the NT Rama Rao and B Saroja Devi starrer 1966 film Sakunthala was also not able to impress the viewers?

Talking about Shaakuntalam, Samantha was appreciated for her portrayal of Shakuntala, despite the negative reviews and collections. Gunasekhar wrote and directed the Telugu-language mythical love drama film. It is based on Kalidasa’s classic drama Abhignyana Shakuntalam.

Dev Mohan played the lead role of King Dushyanta, the ruler of the Puru dynasty, in the film. Allu Arjun’s daughter Arha also made her acting debut with Shaakuntalam. Supporting cast members of the film included Mohan Babu, Jisshu Sengupta, Madhoo, Gautami, Aditi Balan and Ananya Nagalla.

The plot of the film focused on Shakuntala and King Dushyant love story. Due to a sage’s curse, Dushyant forgets all about Shakuntala.

The major portion of the film was shot in Hyderabad, including Ramoji Film City, Ananthagiri Hills and Gandipet Lake.

On the other hand, NT Rama Rao and B Saroja Devi starrer 1966 film Sakunthala was also not able to impress the viewers. Sakunthala was a Telugu-language Hindu mythological film directed by Kamalakara Kameswara Rao. The film also featured Nagayya, Relangi, Ramana Reddy, Padmanabham, Mukkamala, KVS Sharma, Geetanjali, Sarada, Pushpavalli, EV Saroja, Nirmalamma and Baby Kutty Padmini in the supporting roles.

Even after putting so much effort into promotional the Gunasekhar-directed Shaakuntalam failed to match the expectations of the audience. Now the film is available on the OTT platform Amazon Prime Video.