Feeling the heat – box office slow burners simmer and rise
While stars Rajnikanth and Ajay Devgn ruled the October box office, a little known late September release is still bringing in big numbers…
By Rodrigues C
WITH TEMPERATURES touching 38 degrees Celsius, the October heat in Mumbai has turned life topsy-turvy in the metropolis. The rain deficit followed by this unbearable weather is not what the city expects for this time of year…
Moving on, two of filmdom’s most famous characters, at least in the recent past, returned to the big screen and delivered in terms of box office numbers.
For Bollywood the biggest draw for October has been ‘Drishyam: The Conclusion’ starring Ajay Devgn, who plays Ajay Salgaonkar, alongside star Tabu and Jaideep Ahlawat.
There were huge expectations from the October 2 release and it surely didn’t disappoint with an opening of £4.8 million, the highest in Devgn’s 35-year-old film career.
By the weekend the thriller had already amassed £13.7m, the second highest of the year behind Ranveer Singh’s ‘Dhurandhar 2’. Its first week collections in India alone stood at £23.1m, overseas collections amounted to another £7m. The second week saw a dip in collections but it still managed to collect £16.2 million globally. As things stood, the film has minted an impressive £46m worldwide till date.
October’s other big attraction was probably the biggest of the month, Rajinikanth’s ‘Jailer 2’ which hit theatres on October 15.
The film legend plays Pandian in the actioner. Ramya Krishnan, SJ Suryah, Mohanlal, Vidya Balan, Sooraj Venjaramoodu and Mithun Chakraborty also feature in the Nelson Dilipkumar directorial.
The film delivered an opening day collection of £4.7m. Surprisingly, day two and day three saw drops in the collections, £2.9m and £2.7m. But on day four, a Sunday, collections jumped to £4.3m. By the end of the first week the thriller had made an impressive £26.2m.
Strangely, the film lost steam in its second week and collections dropped to £7.4m. With earnings of £60m ‘Jailer’ has become the highest grossing Tamil film worldwide overtaking Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar’s ‘2.0’ which had collected £54.4m at the box office.
The overseas performance of ‘Jailer 2’ is particularly noteworthy, underlining the international appeal of Tamil cinema.
Telugu language saw the release of ‘Ranabaali’, featuring Vijay Deverakonda and Rashmika Mandanna.
Released on October 16, the film opened with a collection of £728,000. Its first three days generated around £1.8m, while its opening week collection touched £3.5m. Although its second week saw a considerable reduction in daily earnings, the film registered a small recovery over its second weekend. By October 25, its worldwide gross had reached £5.7m, including approximately £4.8m in domestic gross.
The film’s performance reflects the importance of maintaining audience interest beyond the initial opening weekend.
One of the interesting stories from Kannada cinema has been ‘Premada Oorali’ staring Shree Raam and Thapaswini Poonachawhich.
Released on September 25. the film has demonstrated the potential of sustained audience support even without a well-known cast.
Its opening-day collection was a mere £8,661. However, the film continued attracting audiences over several weeks. The film has collected £9.7m, an impressive achievement for a movie that was budgeted at around £157,000.
On October 29, more than a month after its release the film collected £67,000 at the box office from 841 shows. ‘Premada Oorali’, the recent ‘Hanuman Ansh’ and last year’s Gujarati devotional drama, ‘Laalo: Krishna Sada Sahayaate’ – all have seen this kind of trajectory at the box office. A slow start but sustained box office numbers over a period of time.
October 23 saw the release of the Ayushmann Khurrana-Sara Ali Khan comedy ‘Udta Teer’, which registered a modest opening of £306,000. By the end of the first weekend the film’s collections had reached £1.4m, which has now swelled to £3.5m worldwide. Not bad for a movie that is budgeted at around £5m.
October surely belonged to the two franchises which provide a powerful demonstration of what established film franchises can achieve at the Indian box office. Perhaps the biggest takeaway is that movie-goers are looking for characters they care about and stories that justify their return to cinemas. Two different cinematic worlds, two different storytelling approaches, but one common commercial lesson: a well-built film franchise can become one of the most powerful assets in Indian cinema.
November will be all about ‘Ramayana: Rise of a Legend’ (the first of two parts) with Ranbir Kapoor, Yash, Sai Pallavi (November 5). The month will surely be dominated by the success of this magnum opus. Tickets to the tune of £1.8m have already been sold worldwide.
Other film releases for the month include ‘Kaali Kheti’ with Jackie Shroff, Sharad Kelkar (November 20), ‘Pratap‘ with Amit Sadh, Esha Deol, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Seema Biswas (November 20), ‘Om Chapter-1 Udhiram: The Blood Wood’ with Dhanush, Mammootty, Sai Pallavi, Sreeleela (November 20), ‘Gunmaaster G9’ with Emraan Hashmi, Genelia Deshmukh (November 27) and Sooraj Barjatya’s ‘Yeh Prem Mol Liye’ with Ayushmann Khurrana, Sharwari (November 27). We will catch you soon.
•Apologies due to a technical hitch, this article was delayed and should have appeared on its customary monthly drop, on October 31
