A cameo by a famous star usually helps a film gain traction at the box office, but in Rajinikanth’s case, the opposite seems to be true – the Tamil audience wants all of Rajinikanth or nothing at all. In Lal Salaam (2024), a sports drama directed by Aishwarya Rajinikanth at a budget of around Rs. 90 crore, the superstar appears in an extended cameo for 40 minutes. Yet, the film has tanked at the box office, making only about Rs. 15 crore in four days according to the box office tracking website Sacnilk.
Notably, Rajinikanth is fresh off the blockbuster success of Nelson Dilipkumar’s crime comedy Jailer (2023) which is estimated to have made over Rs. 600 crore worldwide. The posters of Lal Salaam feature Rajinikanth’s character from the film – Mohideen Bhai – prominently. Before the release of the film, fans on social media were excited about possible references to Rajinikanth’s iconic role as Baasha from his 1995 gangster film of the same name. However, this didn’t quite translate to box office success. The film opened at a modest Rs 3.25 crore and failed to grow as expected.
Also starring Vishnu Vishal and Vikranth, Lal Salaam is about a village where Hindus and Muslims live in peace. However, local politicians try to inflame the emotions of the people due to the upcoming elections. Perhaps because of the debacle of P Vasu’s Kuselan (2008), in which Rajinikanth did a cameo but the film was marketed as a ‘Superstar’ movie, this time, it was made clear that Rajinikanth was only appearing in an extended cameo.
But this could have hurt the film’s prospects as well. “There wasn’t much buzz around the film, and everyone knew that Rajinikanth was only playing a guest role. People were not excited about it like they would be for a Rajinikanth movie. I feel it wasn’t promoted well either,” said Tiruppur Subramaniam, film distributor and former president of the Tamil Nadu Theatre and Multiplex Owners Association. “Besides, for the past four months, occupancy has been really low in theatres. Even the Pongal releases like Captain Miller (2024) and Ayalaan (2024) were not superhits.”
A cameo by a star from another industry can be used to effectively market the film in other states. Rajinikanth’s Jailer, for instance, had hugely impactful cameos by Mohanlal and Shivrajkumar that catered to audiences in Kerala and Karnataka respectively. With industries building film franchises, cameos like Salman Khan in Pathaan (2023) and Shah Rukh Khan in Tiger 3 (2023) or Kamal Haasan in Leo (2023) are also welcomed by the audience that’s eager to see how the cinematic universe will develop. But, without these factors, it appears that cameos by themselves don’t draw in the crowds any more.
Writer, director and trade analyst Cable Sankar said that the Tamil audience has a certain set of expectations from a Rajinikanth film. This is evident from what happened with Kuselan. Katha Parayumbol (2007), the Malayalam original, featuring Mammootty in the cameo role, was a hit, while the Tamil remake became a massive flop. “People are not interested in seeing Rajinikanth playing someone’s dad or grandfather – not unless he’s also the main character. They want to see him as the hero. The only cameo I can think of where he is effectively used is K Natraj’s Anbulla Rajinikanth (1984) where he acted as himself,” said Sankar.
In Anbulla Rajinikanth, the superstar plays an actor and Good Samaritan who visits an orphanage and becomes friends with a little girl (Meena) he meets there. The character of Mohideen Bhai from Lal Salaam, however, does not offer anything new, said Sankar. “It’s predictable and the film did not wow the audience at any point,” he said.
A week before the release of Pa Ranjith’s Kaala (2018), Rajinikanth, its lead star, had whipped up controversy by defending police violence against anti-Sterlite protests in Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu. Kaala, an action drama, adapts and subverts the Ramayana to offer a commentary on contemporary politics. The film, which is on the land rights of Dalits, envisions a coming together of Dravidian, communist and Ambedkarite ideologies to defeat Hindutva. However, the public anger triggered by Rajinikanth’s statement before the release of the film is believed to have hurt its box office collections. Ironically, in the film, his character questions the police for its overreach on citizens. The dissonance between Rajnikanth’s actions onscreen and offscreen was called out by many back in the day.
But, is that also true for Lal Salaam – a film that has a communist salute as its title, and features Rajinikanth as a Muslim? After all, the superstar has been criticised several times for his association with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He also attended the inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya before the release of Lal Salaam. At the audio launch of Lal Salaam, Aishwarya Rajinikanth made it a point to address such criticism, and said that her father wasn’t a “sanghi” (a derogatory term used to refer to supporters of the BJP and Hindutva) as he is often called.
C Lakshmanan, retired professor from Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) who writes on politics and cinema, said that it was important to recognise that it is the director’s ideology that Rajinikanth speaks in his films, and not his personal beliefs. “It’s Pa Ranjith’s Ambedkarite ideology that Rajinikanth spoke in films like Kabali (2016) and Kaala. Rajinikanth is a believer and follows Hinduism. But I wouldn’t call him a fundamentalist,” said Lakshmanan, disagreeing with the criticism that has dogged Rajinikanth in Tamil Nadu, a state where the BJP does not have a stronghold.
Noting that there might be political pressure on celebrities to participate in certain events, Lakshmanan pointed out that Rajinikanth had been willing to take the risk of doing films like Kaala and Lal Salaam. “No other superstar would have been willing to mouth the kind of radical dialogues that are there in Kaala. Rajinikanth dared to do it,” said Lakshmanan. He added that in Lal Salaam, too, the central message is quite radical for current times – that a religious person needn’t be bigoted, and that it’s possible to keep faith while also being humane. The film also calls out exploiting religion for vested political interests. However, the quality of filmmaking in Lal Salaam leaves much to be desired, he opined.
“I felt the editing was very poor and even the storytelling wasn’t engaging. The message it wants to convey is laudable. The film reminds us of the diversity in our culture, but all this has to be told in a visual language that attracts the audience,” said Lakshmanan. He, too, agreed with Tiruppur Subramaniam’s view that the film wasn’t promoted enough. “There were only about 20 people in the theatre when I watched the film in Chennai. That’s shocking for a Rajinikanth film, even if he’s only appearing in a cameo,” he added.
Lal Salaam was supposed to be released in the Hindi region on February 9, the same date as the Tamil and Telugu releases. But, neither the Hindi nor the Tamil versions were released in the north territory. No official reason has been given by the producers. This, too, has impacted its box office collections.
In the Telugu states, the film has been a washout. Nandi award winning film critic and journalist Rentala Jayadeva said that ‘Rajini mania’ has been waning in the Telugu states for the past several years. “His popularity in Telugu began with Baasha. It increased manifold with Muthu (1995), Padayappa (1999) and later films like Sivaji (2007) and Robot (2010). He acted in straight Telugu films, too, but it was always the dubbed films that had a market,” said Jayadeva. The film critic noted that after Robot, it was only Kabali that captured the interest of the Telugu audience and that later films like Kaala, Petta (2019) or Annaatthe (2021) did not match the hype that was generated by Kabali.
“Surprisingly, the stylish action film Jailer, which came close on the heels of Kamal Haasan’s Vikram (2022), was lapped up by the Telugu audience. The opening was slow but it became a big hit because of the strong content,” he said. Lal Salaam, though, does not seem to have appealed to the Telugu audience. “It’s an old theme and the production values aren’t great either. Rajinikanth appearing in an extended cameo is an outdated attempt to create more business,” said Jayadeva. “Not a single press meet or promotion was held in the Telugu states.”
Pointing out that even in Tamil, the box office results have been listless, Jayadeva said that the audience today is “clever enough” to distinguish between a “pakka Rajini” film and one where he is merely playing a cameo to bring in more numbers.
The theatrical experience of watching a Rajinikanth film triggers an almost festival-like joy among his fans. But clearly, they aren’t so thrilled with a film where he isn’t the hero. “The audience would rather wait for such a film to come out on OTT in four weeks. That’s the fate of most films today, and when the audience doesn’t think of this as a Rajinikanth film, why would it be any different?” concluded Tiruppur Subramaniam.