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“Double iSmart Faces More Trolls Than Box Office Success”

Director Puri Jagannadh’s film Double iSmart, starring Ram Pothineni, has faced a dismal performance at the box office, collecting a meager ₹17 crore over 10 days. Despite high expectations following the success of iSmart Shankar, the sequel has turned out to be a colossal flop.

According to a top distributor, the film lost momentum after its initial day and continued to decline, dashing Puri Jagannadh’s hopes of making a strong comeback after the failure of Liger. The production cost for the film was around ₹90 crores, with a significant portion allocated to remunerations—₹25 crore for Ram Pothineni and ₹15 crore for Sanjay Dutt—leaving a substantial impact on the budget.

The movie’s storyline, involving a “double memory transfer,” failed to resonate with audiences, leading to more criticism than positive reception. While the film opened well on its first day, it quickly lost viewers in subsequent shows, resulting in its disappointing performance.

Puri Jagannadh, who also produced the film along with Charmme Kaur, now faces a challenging financial situation, with substantial refunds expected to be made to distributors. There is speculation that Puri might collaborate on a new project with distributor-turned-producer Niranjan Reddy to mitigate the losses, although nothing has been confirmed yet.