The “Word-of-Mouth” PhenomenonThe phrase that captures this specific box office phenomenon is “negative word of mouth”. In Bollywood trade circles, when a highly anticipated film collapses after a massive opening weekend due to poor audience reception, it is commonly said that the film “failed to sustain due to negative word of mouth” or suffered a “steep theatrical drop.
The box office trajectory of the Manmohan Desai directorial“Gangaa Jamunaa Saraswati” serves as a case study for the shifting tastes of Indian cinema audiences in the late 1980s.The audience grew tired of exaggerated tropes, such as fighting mechanical crocodiles or overly convenient miracles. Viewers began preferring grounded, realistic screenplays over the over-the-top, lost-and-found formulas popularized…
