Only Rajni can do it: Rs150 crore in three weeks!

A week after India’s most expensive film, starring India’s highest paid actor, created mass hysteria across thousands of screens worldwide; box office collections are only getting bigger. If trade analysts are to be believed, the film will go on to collect a massive Rs150 crore in the first three weeks alone.

Interestingly, the hype around Tamil superstar Rajnikanth and his latest blockbuster Sivaji is slowly spreading to territories that are not known to welcome regional cinema. “I am getting calls from towns I didn’t even know existed. This is for the first time that new centres like Latur are also screening a south Indian movie,” says film distributor Nambirajan.

In Mumbai, the film is being screened during prime time at multiplexes and single screen theatres alike. “Typically, regional films are given the morning slot at multiplexes while a few single screen theatres have all shows,” says Nambirajan who also owns Aurora theatre in Matunga, which regularly plays Rajnikanth movies to packed houses.

This time multiplexes playing Sivaji have reported nearly 90 per cent occupancy in the last week. “The response has been tremendous. The film has repeat value even for north Indian audiences,” says Prakhar Joshi, head of programming, PVR Cinemas. Joshi adds that though the majority of their audience is Tamil, non-Tamilians are coming to watch the movie too.

Ask Ravi Sharma who does not follow the language but was amongst the hundreds of loyalists who whistled and danced in the aisles as their hero made an appearance on the first day first show. “I intend going back every weekend till the movie is playing,” he says.

Trade pundits estimate that Rajnikanth’s films release in 150 centres across Tamil Nadu — twice the number of centres that any other Indian actor can get. “A whole parallel economy depends on this man who is considered a god in Tamil Nadu,” observes trade analyst Amod Mehra.