New Delhi: Director Mani Ratnam’s new Tamil film Chekka Chivantha Vaanam has broken the filmmaker’s recent record of lukewarm box-office performers. The film, which made over Rs 30 crore in Tamil Nadu alone, had recorded impressive advance bookings, especially in urban areas of the state like Chennai, Chengalpet and Coimbatore.
The crime thriller starring Arvind Swami, Silambarasan, Arun Vijay, Vijay Sethupathi, Jyothika, Aishwarya Rajesh and Aditi Rao Hydari comes at a time when Ratnam has not had a hit in years -- his last release in 2017, romantic drama Kaatru Veliyidai, starring Karthi and Aditi Rao Hydari had only made Rs 8 crore over its opening weekend. Other recent films like Kadal (2013) and O Kadhal Kanmani (2015) were also underperformers at the box office. Chekka Chivantha Vaanam or CCV, is a Godfather-style gangster story with a bunch of saleable Tamil names, including Simbu, Sethupathi, Vijay and Jyotika, whom Ratnam has not worked with earlier. It also features the filmmaker’s core technical team comprising composer AR Rahman, cinematographer Santosh Sivan and editor A Sreekar Prasad.
“Chekka Chivantha Vaanam is riveting and racy, pure vintage Mani Ratnam, where he has concentrated more on the story and plotline,” tweeted independent trade analyst Sreedhar Pillai. “A multi-starrer where every male star has shades of grey and gets their equal share of screen space. Super climax.”
Trade analyst Taran Adarsh pointed out that the film was also doing impressive business in key international markets, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and the New Zealand. Until Saturday, CCV had made A$ 170,682 (Rs 88.07 lakh) in Australia, £63,895 (Rs 60.40 lakh) in the UK, NZ$ 54,411 (Rs 26.12 lakh) in New Zealand and $592,319 (Rs 4.30 crore) in the US. In Australia, the film outdid the Hindi releases of the week.
“Hindi films no longer dominate or monopolise the international markets these days. While several Telugu films have eclipsed the business of Hindi films in the US, Telugu and Tamil films are now drawing bigger numbers in Australia,” Adarsh tweeted.