Sadak 2 - A hit or flop? - Matrix Bricks

Sadak 2 – A hit or flop?

Sanjay Dutt’s collaborations with Mahesh Bhatt have usually worked wonders for him and have become memorable aspects of his rocky career. Bhatt was able to bring out the action-hero side of Dutt, as well as his emotional and vulnerable traits. Sadak was one of them. It was a beautifully crafted movie which also made some controversies at the time it was made, as the actress in the lead role was the director’s daughter. But the cast was so well done that each of the characters got the perfect actor they can get for the role. The villain was not a 6 foot muscle man, but a eunuch played by Sadashiv Amrapurkar. The main role’s background, his life and issues were portrayed well off and it was a heart touching romance to watch.

After the hit of Sadak, Mahesh Bhatt planned a sequel for the same which was set to release in theaters in the month of March. But due to the Coronavirus outbreak, it got delayed. Finally it was announced to be released on 28th August 2020 on the OTT platform. But due to the death of Sushant Singh Rajput, there was a rage about nepotism among people. At that time, ‘Sadak 2’ trailer was released which was directed by Mahesh Bhatt. The star cast of Sadak 2 were Alia Bhatt, Aditya Roy Kapur, Sanjay Dutt, Pooja Bhatt. They were all products of Nepotism. This made people more angry since the movie had only the star kids. The trailer was the most disliked video on youtube with more than 13M dislikes. Everywhere there were issues of nepotism arising. Many people like Karan Johar, Alia Bhatt, Ranbir Kapoor, Anaya Pandey were in the trap of nepotism. People exploited them over social media and in the comment sections. Fearing widespread trolling and negativity, Alia Bhatt had  turned off the comments section of her social media accounts including Instagram and Twitter. Things were taking a negative turn. It is not easy to decipher this new ‘dislike’ game! Everyone is already perplexed with all the heat and dust around the buying of likes and views. One cannot be sure whether the ‘dislikes’ too are bought by interested anti-Bhatt-pro-Rajput parties or they are a genuine outpouring of grief, resentment and solidarity with the departed actor.

Are there any learnings globally on negative reviewing? The ability to express dislike has made being hated big business for some. Rebecca Black’s rendition of Friday and almost everything Justin Beiber puts out is flooded with disapproval on YouTube, but they have both managed to persevere through anonymous disapproval to make good in the music industry. Yahoo!’s Chris Chase has made a sports writing career out of being hated by the masses. People who disagree with you, experts believe, will still check in to show their disapproval, much like Howard Stern’s early listeners who stayed glued to the radio just so they could call in and complain when Stern crossed the line.

Bhatt’s circumstances and context are obviously different. It is not his creative product, but his own self that is being actively thumbed-down. But here the people didn’t understand that by disliking the video they were giving them views as well. The views are now more than 75M. The anger of various people led to a part of Marketing. Though people were very upset with the movie but they still watched it and this made the movie eventually hit. The movie got immense watches and hits even after the controversy. Though things were taking a negative turn yet the movie did a good business and that’s what matters after all, right?