Back‘Baahubali 2’ becomes first Indian film to earn Rs1,000 crore worldwide
Karan Johar, who presented the Hindi version of 'Baahubali 2', confirmed the record on the microblogging site Twitter
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New Delhi: Director S.S Rajamouli’s epic action adventure Baahubali 2: The Conclusion has become the first Indian movie to collect Rs.1,000 crore at the worldwide box office in a record-breaking spree that extended to its second week.
Baahubali 2, which released on 28 February, reached the milestone on Sunday, earning a record Rs800 crore at the domestic box office and Rs200 crore overseas, trade analysts said. Karan Johar, who presented the Hindi version of the movie, confirmed the record on the microblogging site Twitter.
Last week, the movie overtook Aamir Khan’s PK (2014) and Dangal (2016) and became the highest grossing Indian movie with revenue of ₹ 792 crore. PK and Dangal had earned ₹ 43 crore and ₹ 18 crore worldwide respectively.
Rajamouli’s smash hit, which released across four languages—Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam—made Rs520 crore worldwide in its opening weekend. In India, it earned Rs121 crore on its opening day and Rs385 crore over the first weekend, setting Indian records for both.
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“It’s the kind of grandeur never seen before on screen coupled with VFX (visual effects) clearly ahead of its time and a story based on elements of fantasy, Indian traditions and values," said Atul Mohan, editor of trade magazine Complete Cinema, explaining the unprecedented success of the movie. “Today when people want to make a movie in 6-8 months, imagine giving four-and-half years of your life to a project."
Baahubali 2, a sequel to Rajamouli’s 2015 blockbuster that earned more than Rs500 crore worldwide, stars Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka Shetty, Tamannaah Bhatia, Ramya Krishnan and Sathyaraj in lead roles and revolves around two warring cousins in a fictional kingdom.
The two movies were made on a total budget of Rs400-450 crore. Released in about 6,000 screens nationwide, Baahubali 2 saw tickets being sold at exorbitantly high rates across the country, with theatres booked for most of the first week. Online ticketing platform BookMyShow sold over 1 million tickets for the film within 24 hours of opening bookings.
The screen count for the movie was a third above the typical number a Bollywood movie is released on. Multiplex chain Carnival Cinemas said all previous records for per-day occupancy had been broken. About 1.4 million people watched Baahubali 2 in 5,174 shows with around 85% occupancy in the first four days of release, according to P.V Sunil, chief executive officer and director of the chain. The opening day registered about 1,314 shows, the highest number ever by a film at Carnival. Aamir Khan’s December release Dangal had 1,240 shows, for example, while Salman Khan’s Eid offering Sultan had 1,280 shows per day.
The Hindi version of the film is speeding towards the ₹ 400 crore mark in India alone, also making it (a dubbed film) the highest earning Hindi movie at the domestic box office. Trade analysts expect Baahubali 2 to mint ₹ ,000 crore within 5-6 weeks across the four languages in India, another record.
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