'Pushpa' beats all odds, collects Rs. 173cr on first weekend

Written by

Aishwarya Ragupati

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Published on Dec 21, 2021, 10:58 am

Following a long wait, Pushpa: The Rise finally hit the theaters on December 17. And people showered it with a lot of love helping the film collect a good Rs. 173cr (gross, worldwide) on its opening weekend. Even its Hindi version collected a total of Rs. 12 crore during that period, as per trade analyst Taran Adarsh, and this is despite several unfavorable factors.

Pushpa has been made on a Rs. 250 crore budget, so a lot was/is riding on it, but the film has lived upto the hype. It's already on its way to become a blockbuster, for real, and this comes as an encouraging push to the other Telugu films waiting to get released, like Radhe Shyam, Sarkaru Vaari Paata, and of course SS Rajamouli's RRR.

This collection at the box office is particularly significant given the fact that the film had locked horns with a Hollywood biggie (Spider-Man: No Way Home), which hit theaters just a day before Pushpa. It ate up a lot of theatrical share and had a huge buzz around it. Pushpa makers could not create that due to COVID-19 restrictions preventing 100% promotional activities.

Meanwhile, the Sukumar-directorial has managed to bag a rating of 8.2 on IMDb. This movie has emerged as the highest-rated for lead star Allu Arjun till now on the platform. His 2010 film Vedam, directed by Radha Krishna Jagarlamudi and co-starring Anushka Shetty, is the second ranked for the actor. And given that Pushpa is still running, its ranking may go further up.

Besides Arjun, Pushpa features Rashmika Mandanna as the leading lady, while Fahadh Faasil plays the main antagonist. Promoted as the Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo actor's first pan Indian outing, the film was released in five Indian languages including Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, and Hindi. Initially, the release was planned for Christmas but was pushed to avoid a clash with Ranveer Singh's 83. Meanwhile, read our review.