Producer S Naga Vamsi of Sithara Entertainments has trashed the film reviews that surface online soon after the release of a movie on Fridays. In a podcast, he opined that YouTube reviews have mere entertainment value and nothing beyond that.
The take is interesting, especially considering that YouTube reviews these days garner lakhs of reviews on day one. Naga Vamsi's considered view is that hardly one or two percent of viewers decide their movie-watching choices based on online reviews.
In a recent interview, actor Kiran Abbavaram gave a more nuanced view. He suggested that negative reviews don't impact big-ticket movies like 'Devara' but impact small movies with limited day-one viewership. In the case of superstar movies, since lakhs of people watch them on day one, audience talk matters and not the opinions of a few film critics. In the case of small films, since only a few thousand viewers watch on day one, reviews have a much wider reach. As a consequence, negative reviews for small reviews can have unfavourable consequences.
