HYDERABAD: It may not get bigger than this, any time soon. Prabhas-starrer Baahubali has set the cash registers jingling. And how. The numbers being touted are humongous, between Rs 68.5 crore to Rs 76 crore on the first day, easily besting the Rs 45 crore collection recorded by Shah Rukh Khan’s 2014 movie Happy New Year. Just the collections from the US on Thursday and Friday’s previews for Baahubali are $2.5 million, which is another break out figure.
Rarely has an Indian movie created such a box office sensation as this fantasy epic mounted on a lavish scale and marketed in an equally slick way.
If the first day saw Twitter and Facebook abuzz with the story, SFX (graphics techniques applied to movies to simulate a real or imaginary event) and abrupt end, day two has been focused on the numbers. By Friday evening, trade watchers, including Taran Adarsh, were cheering: “Baahubali creates history. Records highest-ever day one business in all versions: Rs 50 crore India biz. Phenomenal. Unprecedented.”
The Rs 5.5 crore figure for north India is the highest-ever for a dubbed movie. According to the movie makers, in Australia, it grossed 0.55 million Australian dollars (about Rs 2.6 crore).
But there is a caveat. “All these numbers are approximations as the collection figures are tabulated only after one week. And the prices on the first day are usually higher, so it cannot be calculated for the whole week. But it looks like one of the biggest blockbusters among Indian movies,” said a distributor for Nizam territory.
The movie got a rousing reception in Telangana, AP and other southern states where some cinema halls have pulled out movies to catch the Baahubali frenzy. Keralites who missed the Friday date with Baahubali can have a Sunday date, as the strike by First Class Theatre Owners against piracy has been withdrawn.
Big-Ticket Show
Rs 68 crore collection
$2.5 mn US collection
Rs 34 crore AP & Telangana
Rs 5 crore earnings in Tamil Nadu
Rs 7 crore in Karnataka
Rs 5.15 crore in other states
150 screens in single day in Vijayawada
1,600 screens in AP and Telangana
Beer, milk abhishekham in Visakhapatnam