Recently, a Tamil social media handle posted a poll asking fans to vote for the most awaited upcoming film. The options were Prabhas-Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Spirit, Vijay’s farewell film Jana Nayagan, Yash’s Toxic, and SS Rajamouli’s Varanasi.
Around 5 lakh people voted, and Spirit won the poll with 38% of the votes. Vijay’s film came second, even though the poll was posted by a Tamil handle.
After this, Prabhas fans started celebrating and bragging online. They claimed this proved Prabhas’ unmatched craze and said the Prabhas-Sandeep Vanga combination would surely create havoc at the box office. Some even called this poll a ‘small trailer’ of the Spirit storm coming on March 5, 2027.
But the ground reality can always be very shocking and different when compared to social media verdict.
Prabhas’ recent disaster The Raja Saab also won many such online polls before release. But when the film actually hit theatres, audiences stayed away. The opening was shockingly poor for a star of Prabhas’ level. In fact, it turned out to be one of his weakest openings post-Baahubali, not just in India but also overseas.
That clearly shows one thing. Winning social media polls means nothing.
These polls have become a joke. They do not reflect real audience interest or box office potential. Most of the time, such polls are hijacked by fan armies or bots of a particular actor. Clicking a poll button is easy. Buying a ticket and sitting through a film is not.
After The Raja Saab, Prabhas is arguably at his lowest point. Brutal trolling is still going on weeks after the release. He is getting heavy backlash for looking disinterested, for excessive face replacement and body doubles, even in basic scenes like walking or simple dance steps. Many viewers found his performance flat and, in some scenes, outright bad.
Because of this, even Spirit is not going to be an easy ride. Sandeep Reddy Vanga will have to work extra hard to extract a strong, convincing performance from Prabhas. This time, hype alone will not save the film.
So, fans and even industry people should stop overreacting to online polls. Take them with a pinch of salt.
The real verdict comes only when the audience walks into theatres, not when they tap their screen on social media.
