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Film theatres are readying for a big box office battle this week with K.G.F: Chapter 2, the second instalment of the blockbuster action franchise, hitting the screens on Thursday to clash with Tamil film Beast starring popular star Vijay that released on April 13. Both films are projected to have record openings as per film ticket site BookMyShow, independent cinema owners and trade analysts.
Orginally in Kannada, the Hindi version of KGF: 2 alone is expected to notch up first-day earnings of Rs. 50 crore, the highest ever for the language, beating all-time records of Bollywood biggies. Overall, the film has seen an advance booking of 2.5 million tickets on BookMyShow.
In the South, especially Tamil Nadu, Beast has seen an advance booking of 1.8 million tickets with morning shows starting as early as 6 am. The first day earnings of Beast are expected to cross Rs. 40 crore. The Tamil film will also attempt to woo North Indian audiences with a Hindi version. In testimony to the growing might of southern cinema in the Hindi-speaking belt, Shahid Kapoor’s Jersey has pushed its release date by a week to avoid clashing with these two films.
Theatre owners across India are also hopeful of benefiting from multiple holidays this week, including Baisakhi, Vishu, Ugadi and Good Friday.
“The writing on the wall is clear. With advance bookings going through the roof, the Hindi dub of KGF alone is sure to take a massive opening and possibly beat the first day earnings of RRR," Kamal Gianchandani, chief executive officer, PVR Pictures Ltd said.
The film is likely to challenge the opening records held by all-time blockbusters in India including Thugs of Hindostan, a Diwali release in 2018, Marvel’s superhero flick Avengers: Endgame and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion. The Hindi version of RRR had made around Rs. 19 crore on its first day late last month.
Rajendar Singh Jyala, chief programming officer at INOX Leisure Ltd said while KGF has the advantage of being a sequel to a hugely successful film and could follow the same trajectory as Baahubali 2, Beast will dominate screens and mind space in southern states like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka where Vijay has huge fan following. With blockbusters like Master, Bigil, Sarkar and Mersal over the past few years, the actor hasn’t seen a flop since 2015. “Beast is the biggest film of the year for us and KGF has been completely overshadowed here. We’re expecting five absolutely packed days," Rakesh Gowthaman, managing director of Vettri Theatres in Chennai said about the Vijay-starrer that released on Wednesday.
On the other hand, Vishek Chauhan, an independent exhibitor in Bihar said KGF is one of the biggest films for north India this year and is likely to run without opposition for at least a week. The Hindi-speaking belt has been starved of commercial entertainers since Bollywood turned to urban, multiplex narratives, he added. “And if the word-of-mouth around it is good, all records will be challenged," said Chauhan who will discontinue RRR to run the film in all four shows in his single screen cinema.
In the past three months, south Indian language films have received an overwhelming response bringing to light heightened audience interest and affinity which is language agnostic, towards quality and compelling content on the big screen, Ashish Saksena, chief operating officer, cinemas at BookMyShow said.
“While regional films do see dominant interest in cities that are native to the language they are originally presented in, there is rising interest from audiences across the length and breadth of the country as well with Hindi dubbed versions of regional movies helping break this long-standing barrier to cinema consumption," Saksena said.
The Hindi language version of K.G.F: Chapter 2, which will open with a higher screen count, is leading the charts for advance ticket sales at present. “Having said that, we expect Kannada to follow suit as soon as more screens open up, leaving a strong impact across markets set to make the movie a nationwide success. Beast is also set to be a humungous success, especially in the Tamil-speaking regions, with cinephiles from Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Bengaluru and Trichy being the quickest to grab their tickets among others," he added.