Politics has finally and irrevocably entered our cinema. This is proven by the abysmally low box office figures for Chhapaak, Meghna Gulzar’s much talked-about tale of an acid-attack survivor’s fight for justice.

The well-made, moving film has made a mere Rs 17 crores over the weekend at the box office. This is a far less amount than what was envisaged by trade pundits.

“I expected a business of  Rs 30-32 crores over the weekend,” says a box office analyst who thinks Deepika Padukone’s visit to the JNU definitely proved costly for the  film’s fate.

“Tuesday is Makar Sankranti and there are already big releases in the South in Tamil and Telugu. In the Hindi belt, the first choice this week is Tanhaji. Chhapaak is a distant second,” adds a multiplex expert who blames Deepika’s marketing team for the faux pas.

“She should have never paid any attention to her PR agency who advised her to do this (the JNU visit). It was they who advised her to pay a ‘flying visit’ to the beleaguered campus,” another source muses.

After Deepika’s visit to the protesting students in JNU, there was a clamour for Chhapaak to be boycotted. It seems the radicals have won again.