Asoka (2001): Why did it flop? - Page 2

Originally posted by: Isamreen

Emperor Asoka is a popular and controversial figure in history. The tale of him conquering throne by killing his brothers and then going on a rampage killing and acquiring kingdoms and state and his subsequent transformation as a Buddhist king should have been the main highlights of film. Instead the movie focused more on the romance. Shah and Ajit had great frenemy chemistry which they didn't utilise.

Yes Ashoka is a very cruel king who didnot hesitates to kill his brothers for throne and then went on to become buddist king who never went for war but still ruled his kingdom with his principles.

If they promoted Ashoka just as a periodic film like bahubali then it might have been a hit.

Originally posted by: TheMinion

Those were the days... nobody protested against the movie nor against Kareena's skin-show!

I liked the other girl the best, the one Asoka marries...

Protests were there in Odisha. I was a kid at that time and SRK fan. I wanted the movie to release in Odisha so that I can watch, but people didn't let Ashoka to release here due to the way they represented Kaurwaki. They burnt the posters, effigies etc. Even my father was dead against the movie as he said it was historically innacurate. The representation of Kaurwaki was wrong too. She wasn't princess of Kalinga (now Odisha). She was a commoner.

Originally posted by: -PD-

Yes Ashoka is a very cruel king who didnot hesitates to kill his brothers for throne and then went on to become buddist king who never went for war but still ruled his kingdom with his principles.

If they promoted Ashoka just as a periodic film like bahubali then it might have been a hit.

They casted Ajit and wasted him. They could have showed more friction and game of throne between these two.

Also SRK as a total cruel and dark king would have nailed it. But in the film he is shown as vengeful coz of loss of the princess.

Originally posted by: Isamreen

They casted Ajit and wasted him. They could gave showed more friction and game of throne between these two.

Also SRK as a total cruel and dark king would have mailed it. But in the film he is shown as vengeful coz of loss of the princess.

That movie is really an insult to Ajit. He was treated worst than a side character.

Agree Instead of all the skin show, they could have shown real Ashoka but during that time sex sells in BW saga was going on.... So they turned Ashoka into a love story with a lot of misused creative liberties

Ashoka is one of the renowned and famous King from Ancient India, his reign in the beginning was one of the most bloody and it was not much later that he stopped the warfare and bought peace.

I guess the movie focused to much on his love life rather then what he did as a prince and later King. Also, lots of historical inaccuracies.

Originally posted by: Isamreen

Emperor Asoka is a popular and controversial figure in history. The tale of him conquering throne by killing his brothers and then going on a rampage killing and acquiring kingdoms and state and his subsequent transformation as a Buddhist king should have been the main highlights of film. Instead the movie focused more on the romance. Shah and Ajit had great frenemy chemistry which they didn't utilise.

Completely agree. They could have shown so much about Ashoka the Emperor, rather they showed both Ashoka and Kaurwaki as ho*ny gremlins, with wrong representation of Kaurwaki.

They reduced the famous Kalinga war to something so insignificant. The war itself and from there the transformation of Chandashoka to Dhramashoka would have been wonderful

Originally posted by: -PD-

That movie is really an insult to Ajit. He was treated worst than a side character.

Agree Instead of all the skin show, they could have shown real Ashoka but during that time sex sells in BW saga was going on.... So they turned Ashoka into a love story with a lot of misused creative liberties

@B - so true, ge was playing the character of sushim the arch rival had bare min screen time...

I guess they focused more on love story owing to the king of romance SRK but people would have liked it more if it was more historically accurate and main focus on the journey and character transformation of king Asoka.

Originally posted by: Alpenliebe

Completely agree. They could have shown so much about Ashoka the Emperor, rather they showed both Ashoka and Kaurwaki as ho*ny gremlins, with wrong representation of Kaurwaki.

They reduced the famous Kalinga war to something so insignificant. The war itself and from there the transformation of Chandashoka to Dhramashoka would have been wonderful

💯

The journey from Chandasoka to Dharmashoka would have been iconic in the hands of SRK. He can act cruel and kind both. This would have been a classic otherwise.

SRK’s terrible hamming and Kareena’s horny skin show is all I remember about this movie. Couldn’t just wait to get out of the theater.

They claimed to made story of emperor Asoka but shown as tapori loverboy as Asoka.