📌 Key Points
- Adivi Sesh’s ‘Dacoit’ crosses ₹50 crore worldwide against a ₹65-crore budget.
- Sesh acknowledges ‘Dacoit’ received mixed critical reception compared to ‘Major’.
- Despite reviews, ‘Dacoit’ had the biggest opening in Adivi Sesh’s career.
- Sesh emphasizes his dedication to heartfelt projects over calculated investments.
Adivi Sesh’s latest film, ‘Dacoit,’ is making waves at the box office, surpassing ₹50 crore worldwide. Despite mixed critical reviews, the film achieved the biggest opening in Sesh’s career, prompting the actor to reflect on audience expectations and his approach to filmmaking.
Dacoit’s Box Office Success
Adivi Sesh opens up on the promising start his film, Dacoit, has had at the box office, and what it means for it to do well despite middling critical reaction.
Actor Adivi Sesh ’s Dacoit is currently running in theatres. The action drama has collected just crossed ₹ 50 crore worldwide, according to its producers. For a film on a modest ₹ 65-crore budget, it job half done within its first week itself. As the film continues to draw viewers, Sesh sits down with Hindustan Times for a chat about its success, the expectations audiences have of him, and his career graph so far.
Adivi Sesh’s Career Perspective
With Major, Goodachari, and now Dacoit, Sesh has become somewhat of a flagbearer of mid-budget Telugu cinema. But the actor says none of it is calculated. “I come out with the film once every two years. If I don’t do exactly what the heart says, then what is it all for? I don’t want it to be a brain investment. I want it to be a heart investment ,” he explains.
But what is different about Dacoit is that it has certainly impressed the audiences, but not all the critics. Major, his most successful film to date, has an approval rating of 75% on Rotten Tomatoes. For Dacoit, the figure is a rather low 30%. “I’ve always been the critical darling in the past, whether it was Major or some of my other films. This time, I didn’t get the [same] critical reaction,” admits Sesh.
Audience vs. Critics: A Balancing Act
However, he is quick to point out that the reviews have not seemed to affect the box office draw. “But what [we] got was the biggest opening of my career . And, usually, mid-range heroes have a steep fall on a Sunday or a Monday… and instead, we’re surging on a Tuesday. So for me, the audience response has been extraordinary,” he adds. Does this make him convinced that films are critic-proof now? Sesh chuckles and answers rather politically correctly, “I just think it’s a mixture of everything. They know that I’ve worked very hard. They know how many countless nights I had, and they can see that effort on screen.”
Dacoit, directed by Shaneil Deo, stars Sesh alongside Mrunal Thakur and Anurag Kashyap. The film opened to lukewarm reviews, but was able to gross ₹ 40 crore worldwide in its opening weekend. It has since added around ₹ 10 crore in three days.
While acknowledging the mixed critical response, Adivi Sesh remains focused on audience appreciation. He attributes the film’s success to the hard work invested and the audience’s recognition of his dedication to Telugu cinema, hinting at more such ventures.
