Reasons why Akshay starrer 8X10 Tasveer failed at the Box Office

While earlier this year there were accusations that media had killed Chandni Chowk To China, there are no excuses whatsoever for 8X10 Tasveer which has been given a Thumbs down by audience itself. The film has been out rightly rejected by the paying public, as reflected from the steep fall that the film has witnessed ever day since its Friday release. Says a prolific producer who has been making films for close to a decade, “I am genuinely disappointed with the flop show of 8X10 Tasveer. Even though I have never worked with Akshay and may not be working with him in near future too due to the tight budgets in which I operate, I carry no ill will for the actor.” However, audiences haven’t really shown similar sentiments for Akshay Kumar as they have distanced themselves completely from the film after some very poor word of mouth that the film has been subjected to over the last few days. For any big budget film with an A list star cast, the least it manages to do is take an initial and then crash if the product is bad.

That’s the minimum the makers of 8X10 Tasveer would have expected from an Akshay Kumar starrer. So what really went wrong with the film not even managing to take a good opening? Lack of hit music is the reason stated by Sajid Khan. “Thrillers and suspense films have to always have hit music. Right from Teesri Manzil to JewelThief to Johnny Mera Naam to current generation films like Gupt, Humraaz, Raaz and Race – each of these films had one thing in common – Superhit music”, says Sajid Khan who would soon be beginning to shoot Housefull with Akshay Kumar. The film’s failure has left many shocked though who felt that there would be some life booster for the industry which is seeing a slow death in 2009. “It is depressing to see such a big budget film failing because what industry needed today, especially before going to the strike, was a big money spinner. You never know, it may have kept some moolah rolling for next 4-6 weeks after which it is anyways expected that the strike would be called off”, comments a trade insider. Vivek Agnihotri, director of films like Chocolate and Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal, is quite vocal though while stating his reasons behind the film’s poor box office performance. As per the filmmaker, the problem lied with the casting and genre. “I saw the film in an empty theater. One of the main reasons why I think the film didn’t even take an opening is due to Akshay’s brand promise which is pure entertainment. I think makers couldn’t exploit it”, he reflects, “As a result, they not just wasted an opportunity but also annoyed viewers who love Akshay. Also, no one understood the genre of the film.” He also doesn’t hesitate in going all out in blaming the poor handling of the subject. “Cinema is all about making illogical sound logical”, says Vivek, “8X10 Tasveer went on a path where it made logic sound illogical and as a result fell flat. What a waste of talent, an awesome opportunity and money which this industry needs so badly.” “Let’s not blame the media this time around”, says a filmmaker (on condition of anonymity) who has given numerous back to back hits, “Audience can sense a bad product from a far distance and this time around the promos too couldn’t do the trick. No wonder, the film didn’t even take an opening since audience was just not kicked enough to make a beeline in front of theaters.”
 
Sajid Khan too believes that promos play an integral part in decision making amongst the audience. “The logic is simple”, he says, “If your film has good music, you would promote it more than the talkie portions since you would want your audience to explore the film by themselves. 8X10 Tasveer has bad music with not a single hit song. Due to this, makers were left with no other choice but to beam talkie portions in the film’s promotion. As a result, audience realized what in advance what the film was all about and didn’t show any inclination of catching it in theaters.” While quite a few other filmmakers and actors took a ‘No Comments’ stance around their views for the film or simply refrained from answering by stating that they hadn’t seen the film, a young one film old director (who saw reasonable success coming his way recently) winked, “I don’t think audience has patience to watch a serious film in the garb of an entertainer. I would rather go and spend my money on an out and out commercial fare than watch something which only tries to be smart without being one.”