Baby John BO debacle: Video of Atlee pitting Varun Dhawan against RK has aged like milk, concludes internet-OxBig News Network

With taking on an entirely new on-screen persona while attempting to live up to audience expectations that came with emulating Thalapathy Vijay’s magic on screen, Varun already had enough on his plate. Atlee’s astronomical claims however, may just have buried any cred Varun could have potentially walked away with from the project.

During a press event for the film, Atlee very confidently asserted how Varun Dhawan was the next ‘superstar’ in the making and that Baby John was going to be that final push for him. Now mind you, ‘superstar’ is a tag that in Bollywood only extends itself to the likes of Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan to name the most elite few. Atlee didn’t stop there. A battle lost for Varun before it even began.

But that’s not all. Atlee even went as far as to directly pit Varun against Ranbir Kapoor, who with one of the biggest fiscal successes of the industry last year, Animal, hit play on his golden streak again. As per Atlee, Baby John was supposed to do for Varun what Animal did for Ranbir. It seemed impossible, as soon as the filmmaker verbalised the thought. And now Baby John’s box office report, rather dismal, has made sure that the internet reopens the (over)confident sell, with a lot of notes to share.

Comments like “Ye toh what Animal did to Bobby Deol bhi nahi kar paaya”, “Ranbir alredy had a good fan base animal just increased it” and “Ranbir already proved himself many years ago with Rockstar and Barfi, Varun can never come close to what Ranbir can perform on screen!” summed up the internet’s take on Atlee’s foot-in-mouth moment.

Many even absolved Varun of direct blame when it came to the unsuccessful attempt to create hype, raising eyebrows at Atlee instead: “Atlee jinxed the film by saying this sentence. Kanguva producers did the same mistake..The marketing wasn’t right at all .. it didn’t create any hype at all” read a comment.

Reportedly mounted on a budget of ₹180 crores, a Sacnilk report shares that over a 2-day run, one of which was a major holiday, the film has managed to rake in only ₹16.5 crores — and these are worldwide figures. Even a ‘surprise’ cameo from Salman Khan doesn’t seem like a magic trick enough to save the film.

Baby John, also starring Keerthy Suresh, Wamiqa Gabbi and Jackie Shroff, is currently running in theatres.