‘Baahubali’ re-release surpasses week’s new Bollywood films
'Baahubali: The Beginning' made Rs2-3 crore on re-release in its opening weekend which is better than all the Hindi films that released along with it
New Delhi: Even as the much-awaited second instalment of S.S Rajamouli’s war epic franchise, Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, is still a couple of weeks away from hitting the screens, the re-release of the Hindi version of the first part in the run-up seems to have paid off quite decently for the makers, according to experts.
Baahubali: The Beginning has made Rs2-3 crore in its opening weekend which is better than all the Hindi films that released along with it. These include family drama Mukti Bhawan, musical comedy Laali Ki Shaadi Mein Laaddoo Deewana, erotic love story Mirza Juuliet and Ranvir Shorey-starrer Blue Mountains: A Modern Day Classic, all of which netted less than Rs50 lakh each.
“The re-released film has definitely done very well considering there has been a two-year gap after the first part which is also easily available online and on television channels," said Atul Mohan, editor of trade magazine Complete Cinema.
The first part of Rajamouli’s war epic earned in excess of Rs500 crore worldwide when it released in 2015. Mohan added that the re-released film saw limited release in about 900 screens focusing on metros and multiplexes but still managed to overshadow the new movies of the week.
However, the film didn’t exactly meet the hype synonymous with the Baahubali brand by now. The exorbitantly priced multiplex tickets were responsible for the film not meeting its full potential at the box office despite a well-timed re-release.
“Footfalls for the film could have been much higher had the prices been slightly lower," Mohan said. “You have multiplexes selling tickets for Rs600-700 when an average rate of Rs200-250 would have helped more. Anyway, Monday onwards we shall see a fall in occupancy for the weekdays," he said.
The purpose of re-releasing the film though, industry experts emphasize, has been to generate and sustain curiosity in the run-up to the release of the new film, besides giving a chance to people to revisit the old film before watching the new one.
“It (the re-release) makes for minimum cost for the producers," said film trade and business expert Girish Johar. “It’s only meant as a build-up to the main release and if people are talking about it, it may make for a small proportion of the revenue but adds up to a higher value in the long run."
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