Shaakuntalam Day 1 Box Office Prediction: Samantha's Fantasy Love Story Opens To A Lukewarm Response!

Shaakuntalam is a mythological love story written by Kalidasa with the title 'Abhignana Saakunthalam.' The epic tale from Mahabharatha was adapted for making the movie starring Samantha Ruth Prabhu. The film was released all over the world on April 14 in five languages. Upon its theatrical release, Samantha's portrayal of Shakuntala didn't gain adequate response as expected.

Shaakuntalam has screenplay and direction rendered by none other than Gunasekhar, a Telugu filmmaker who made remarkable films in his career. The saga that cost a fortune couldn't generate buzz around the movie although Samantha went out and out with interviews about everything about her.

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The movie charts the tale of love between Hasthinapura King Dushyanta, who meets and falls in love with Shakuntala at the first sight. The duo gets married in the Gandharva style without any other person as a witness, and when Dushyanta returns to his Kingdom, he leaves behind Shakuntala with a ring as a token of love. Meanwhile, she becomes pregnant and is cursed by Durvasa Maharishi for ignoring him. Adding to her woes, she loses the ring presented to her by Dushyanta, which is her only hope. There is so much drama and several characters involved in the story.

On the day of the grand theatrical release, Samantha's fantasy movie opened to a discouraging occupancy ratio. Also, the movie is estimated to have collected about Rs 4 Crore from all five languages it was released, in India. With several disappointing reviews pouring in for the epic love saga, the movie cannot survive the first weekend and would soon make its way to the OTT platform.

Shaakuntalam stars Dev Mohan, Sachin Khedekar, Mohan Babu, Gautami Tadimalla, Madhoo, Aditi Nagalla, Prakash Raj, Ananya Nagalla, Jisshnu Sengupta, Kabir Duhan Singh, Varshini Sounderajan, Harish Uthaman, Subbaraju, Aadarsh Balakrishna, and Yash Puri in key roles. Allu Arha, Allu Arjun's daugther made her acting debut in the role of Young Bharatha.

Dil Raju is presenting the film under the Sri Venkateswara Creations banner. Neelima Guna produced the movie under the Gunaa Teamworks banner. Sekhar V Joseph and Prawin Pudi worked as Shaakuntalam's cinematographer and editor respectively. Swara Brahma Mani Sharma composed the film's entire background score and tunes, which gained a positive response.