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Reality check: Kabali totters as euphoria fades
Despite his last two releases Vikramasimha and Lingaa tanking at the box-office, superstar Rajinikanth\'s latest offering Kabali generated tremendous hype in the two Telugu States of AP and TS.
Hyderabad: Despite his last two releases Vikramasimha and Lingaa tanking at the box-office, superstar Rajinikanth's latest offering Kabali generated tremendous hype in the two Telugu States of AP and TS.
Distributors and exhibitors fell over each other in vying for the Telugu dubbing rights of the much-hyped action adventure, hoping that the Rajini charisma would once again work wonders at the box-office.
Highlights:
- Unprecedented hype around Kabali expectedly brought in huge openings but recovery of a whopping 34 crore in two States looks a daunting task
- Distributors feel that super-stardom is no substitute for good content
Expectedly, the movie drew unprecedented collections on day one (Rs 9.31 crore) and is expected to garner Rs 15 to Rs 16 crore in both the States until Sunday (due to heavy advance bookings) but distributors already fear that the movie might be losing steam as the footfall at theatres is already on the wane, thanks to the initial euphoria fading.
“Rajini-mania is matchless and blindly trusting in his persona, distributors bought the movie for hefty prices," says producer-director Madhura Sreedhar, who feels that Rajini should rein in his producers.
“Rajini is known to be an idealistic man so he should ask his producers to sell his films in two Telugu states at reasonable prices which would make the buyers safe even in a worst-case scenario, failing which the buyers will incur heavy losses," says Sreedhar.
According to industry sources, the action-adventure was reportedly sold for more than Rs 35 crore including Rs 12 crore in Nizam area, Rs 17 crore in Andhra region and Rs 6.7 crore in Ceded region. Apparently, eight to nine distributors are going to suffer losses of more than 40% since collections are dipping.
“Kabali was bought at astronomical prices. Coupled with the jacked-up prices of tickets at theatres, online piracy and the dampening reviews of the movie, it is surely a cause of worry," rues distributor Srinivas of Nizam.
Concurring with the argument, distributor Ramakrishna of Chittoor who bought the film for a fancy price laments “We surely got carried away by the tremendous hype and believed that Rajini will pull it off as an ageing don.
Despite his fan-following growing by the day, the film is losing steam in some areas and we could end up losing Rs 2.5 crore overall in Ceded region due to dip in collections.”
Summing it up, another distributor Nagireddy of Nellore says "We realised that even a mighty superstar like Rajinikanth needs a good storyline to back up his charisma, otherwise we have to pay a heavy price.
Even his die-hard fans were disappointed with the lack of content and other commercial ingredients normally associated with his kind of movies. Just his stardom alone will not do."
