Rajini's 'Darbar' fails to enthuse satellite TV viewers

Released during Pongal with great fanfare and across three major Indian language film territories, 'Darbar' was a classic Rajinikanth film, full of style, action and machismo. The movie managed great openings but subsequently, the A R Murugadoss venture tapered into being an average performer at the box office, disappointing hardcore Thalaivar fans.

Already it is available on net platforms but when it was premiered on April 14, Tamil New Year's Day in a Tamil channel, the calculation was that with a captive, homebound Corona-affected audience, the film would have record viewership in its favour.

Not surprisingly in a way, given the depleting appeal of the Superstar, the film could not sustain the hype. While Ajith's' Viswasam' held on to its numerous slot, the recent Rajini starrer managed the seventh position behind two major hits of Thalapathy Vijay. It could not even cross the viewership pf flop films of stars like Sivakartikeyan whose films had more viewership than the grand old boss of Tamil cinema. Ironically, it was seen that the Hindi dubbed version which was screened in an upcountry satellite channel and the Telugu dub which also was exhibited garnered more eyeballs than the original Tamil version.