The craze for the Pushpa sequel is growing by the minute. Sukumar’s film is expected to take the biggest opening ever on Thursday, December 5. If we talk about the initial of just the Hindi dubbed version, even that is expected to be the best ever opening for a Hindi film. In other words, the prediction is that the opening day’s collections of this sequel will overtake the opening day’s figures of all past Hindi films!
Allu Arjun and Rashmika Mandana regaled the media and their fans at a Pushpa: The Rule Part 2 event held this afternoon (29th November) at Hotel JW Marriott, Sahar, Bombay. The excitement was palpable every single moment of the function ably compered by Nitin Kakkar. Allu, of course, played to the gallery and won thunderous rounds of applause as he addressed the gathering. He concluded by dancing to two lines of the Angaaron song from the sequel, along with his leading lady who looked ravishing in an all-black ensemble. On compere Nitin’s request, Rashmika also gave a glimpse of her dance on the same (Angaaron) song from the film but only after Nitin agreed to be her dancing partner. Of course, the host was only too excited to give his consent to Rashmika’s proposal. The film’s trailer and excerpts from the songs, screened for the gathering, only served to increase the adrenaline rush at the function which went on for over an hour.
Writer-director Sukumar did not attend the event as he “is still making corrections here and there to give you the best”, as Allu Arjun put it. The icon star, as Allu is referred to in the Telugu film industry, could not stop praising Sukumar with whom he has worked in Arya and Arya 2, besides Pushpa: The Rise Part 1 and this sequel. Producers Naveen Yerneni and Ravi Shankar were pictures of modesty when they spoke about their forthcoming film. All-India distributor Anil Thadani was brief in his address and thanked the producers for reposing faith in him. On his part, Allu Arjun was lavish in his praise for Thadani. “We spoke to so many producers down South and otherwise,” revealed Allu, “and everyone had only very good things to talk about Anil Thadani.” Rashmika revealed that she was nervous as hell on her first day of shooting with “Allu Arjun Sir” for Pushpa: The Rise Part 1 because “he has been a superstar for so many years”. But he was now like family, she added. Allu recalled how Rashmika was teary-eyed on the last day of shooting of the sequel and he wondered — and actually asked her — why she was feeling so low. “But one day later was my last day on the film’s set because the shooting was complete the following day,” added Allu Arjun, “and I myself was feeling emotionally weak.”
When asked what his expectation of the opening day’s box-office collection for the film (in all languages put together) was, Ravi Shankar replied with all the humility at his command, “Rs. 300 crore.” Dismissing rumours about tension between Sukumar and Allu Arjun during the making of the film, Ravi Shankar explained, “A factually incorrect article announced that there was tension between the two, and that story went on circulating, giving the impression that there was something terribly wrong between our hero and writer-director. But the fact is, there was absolutely no truth in the story.”
For those who do not know, Naveen Yerneni lives in Detroit in the US and is into IT. He is as unassuming as his partner, Ravi Shankar.