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‘Thank God people didn’t get their legs broken’: Ahaan Panday’s onscreen father Varun Badola on Saiyaara’s PR strategy
While Akshaye Widhani and Mohit Suri called Saiyaara's theater reactions ‘organic’, actor Varun Badola has contradictory thoughts.
Saiyaara, starring Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda, witnessed a sensational theatrical run at the box office. The romantic drama scored over the Rs 500 crore mark today globally, while its domestic collection has already clinched the Rs 300 crore mark. While Saiyaara made headlines for its superlative box office, it also turned heads with extreme reactions in cinemas.
Many videos of the audience fainting, crying like a child, taking off their shirt publicly, and even watching the movie on a medical drip surfaced all over the internet. When the theater reactions started going over the roof, a section of the audience doubted if it was all a PR-curated stunt to market the movie. While Akshaye Widhani and Mohit Suri have refuted such claims and called them organic reactions, Saiyaara actor Varun Badola has contradictory thoughts.
In a recent conversation with Screen, Varun Badola, who played Ahaan Panday's father in Saiyaara, candidly admitted that he had never imagined the movie would see such a monstrous success.
He said, “When we were working on the film, we hadn’t thought it would get so big; everyone must have thought that the film should at least earn what had gone behind producing it. But on the third day of the release, when the film blew up at the box office, we realized it had gone big. I still haven’t watched Saiyaara.”
Varun Badola takes a dig at Saiyaara PR Team
Varun Badola further commented about the theater reactions of Saiyaara and even took a dig at the PR team.
“By the third or fourth day, the film was being talked about. I saw the euphoria on Instagram. Log jo chudiyaan tod rahe hai, chaatiyaan peet rahe hai (People were breaking their bangles, beating themselves). I think the promotions team went a little overboard there, where people are going to see the film, putting IV drips. Those people must have been told to give content in some way; thank god, people didn’t get their legs broken and went crawling to see the film,” said Varun Badola.
The actor concluded by acknowledging that people actually went and watched the movie, which made it a blockbuster. “It’s okay. We understand promoting the film, but it’s good only up to a certain level. However, the film cannot earn so much money just based on Instagram promotions. People have gone and seen the film, and they have loved it,” added Badola
Stay tuned to Pinkvilla for more updates.
