Instead of the Coronavirus, it is Happiness that’s now spreading in the film trade. Close on the heels of the success of Gangubai Kathiawadi and The Batman (dubbed) in India, and the astounding success of The Kashmir Files, came RRR (dubbed) this week. The lukewarm response to the plans of RRR when they opened on Monday had sent shivers down the spines of the trade people. After all, it had been made (in five languages – shot in Telugu, dubbed in Hindi, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam) at a prohibitively high budget of Rs. 550 crore.
But everything changed on Friday (March 25) once the film opened. Tickets began to sell briskly at the current booking windows, and the first day closed at a little less than Rs. 20 crore! The figure is historic because the film stars two actors who aren’t known names among the Hindi film-going audience even if both are superstars of Telugu cinema. Pushpa: The Rise Part 1, which was also dubbed from a Telugu film, had netted Rs. 3.52 crore on day 1. Why, the first week of RRR might close at an unbelievable Rs. 130 crore or thereabouts!!
Before RRR opened, the trade was wondering whether the The Kashmir Files fever would let RRR get space in people’s hearts. The fear was unfounded for more reasons than one:
(i) By the time RRR was released,TKF had already completed two weeks of its run — that too, with bumper collections;
(ii) S.S. Rajamouli is a brand in himself, and RRR was definitely going to open well, if not excellently well, TKF notwithstanding;
(iii) when two big films, released on the same day, have, in the past, taken flying starts, there was no reason why a big film would not open well in the face of opposition from another ‘small big’ film which was in its third week.
Anyway, after the reopening of cinemas in November last, the successes of last year’s Sooryavanshi, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Pushpa: The Rise Part 1, Tadap and Antim, and of Gangubai Kathiawadi, The Batman, The Kashmir Files and RRR in the first quarter of this year have stood the industry in good stead.
Many in the trade had, during the lockdowns, been sceptical about the business of films. They had felt, box-office business would never be as bountiful as it used to be in the pre-Covid era. Their fears were based on the growing popularity of OTT as a medium of entertainment. Many among the public and so also in the film trade reasoned that people had gotten habituated to watching films on streaming platforms during the lockdowns and, therefore, cinema-going as a habit would slowly die down. Perhaps, Information was the only magazine which kept telling the trade not to be so sceptical, that business would be more bountiful than ever. Our words are ringing true. Touch wood!