Dashing debut of Ishan into Tollywood and Sandaloow in Puri Jagannath directed ‘Rogue’ is sure to remain as a nightmare for the young hero. If trade reports are anything to go by, the film revenues are so weak that producer and buyers could not recover at least their publicity costs.
To be honest, Ishan’s elder brothers CR Manohar, CR Gopi spent a huge bomb on promoting their younger brother as hero. Unfortunately, Puri alone is reported to have pocketed 10 Crores as his package in rolling out a hopeless psychotic product. Later on, unbelievable amount of more than Rs.2 Crores is said to have been spent on publicity campaigns.
When none of the buyers came forward to distribute ‘Rogue’ in major areas, they went for an own release through available market mediators. Despite grand publicity and Puri’s trademark, ‘Rogue’ failed to get decent openings. Once negative talk has spread out, there was no revival.
Further dismal was performance in the United States that ‘Rogue’ collected less than $4K in total run. A scar which may take years time for Puri to recover.