From Tollywood to Bollywood, there has been a general lament that audiences are not coming to theatres. But this week proved otherwise.
The Hindi film Saiyaara, featuring new faces, has been enjoying full-house collections. The film collected a massive Rs 21.5 crore nett on its first day — with normal ticket prices and no stars. On its first Sunday, it raked in a whopping Rs 35.75 crore nett. So far, it has collected Rs 223 crore and is still running strong.
While that itself is surprising, the animated film Mahavatar Narasimha has also been recording houseful shows in several centres. The Hindi version of the film collected a whopping Rs 9.07 crore nett in its first two days, and even the Telugu version earned Rs 3.05 crore nett in the same period.
This is a surprising trend, considering it's an animation film with no pre-release hype. The only big name associated with the film is the banner it was released under — Hombale Films.
On the other hand, the big-star film Hari Hara Veera Mallu, starring Pawan Kalyan, lost momentum after its second day of release, due to negative reviews and poor word of mouth.
Despite charging three to four times the regular ticket prices for premieres and double the price on subsequent days, the film managed only Rs 12 crore nett on premiere day, Rs 34.75 crore nett on the first day, and eventually dropped to Rs 8 crore nett and Rs 9.86 crore nett on the following days.
All in all, no one truly knows what kind of films will attract audiences and which will fail. Star power, pre-release hype, and similar factors often turn out to be myths.
