Fresh off its February 20 debut, Taapsee Pannu’s ‘Assi’ is making headlines—not for triumph, but for stumbling at the ticket counters. The courtroom drama, helmed by Anubhav Sinha, centers on a tenacious lawyer tackling sexual assault justice.
Industry heavyweight Manoj Desai, overseeing G7 and Maratha Mandir cinemas, weighed in candidly. ‘I’m a massive Taapsee fan; she’s outstanding,’ he enthused. ‘But the box office underperformance shocks me.’
The culprit? ‘Assi’ itself. ‘The title left audiences perplexed,’ Desai stated. ‘They bombarded management with queries on what the film was really called.’
On women-centric films’ viability, Desai countered skeptics: ‘Mardaani 1, 2, and 3 proved them wrong with stellar earnings.’
Action spectacles rule the roost. ‘Dhurandar, the violence pinnacle, is a hit—viewers return for more. Border 2 soared, priming excitement for Dhurandar 2.’ ‘O Romeo’ middles along on four screens; ‘Toxic’ is poised for success.
Produced under T-Series and Banaras Mediaworks banners, ‘Assi’ delivers raw intensity. However, Desai’s anecdote reveals how nomenclature can confound and cost dearly.
A veteran champion of single-screen survival, Desai’s commentary spotlights Bollywood’s nuances. ‘Assi’ grapples not just with story strength, but audience clarity in a title-saturated industry.