'Magadheera' Mania Beats Bollywood Biggies

If you thought that a mania is currently on due to ‘Magadheera’ only in the Telugu world then this should change your thoughts. Reports have been flowing in that the film has been beating the current hot Bollywood biggies in the regional markets up north. Notable among them is Kolkata which is known for the strong Bollywood following along with Bengali.

Take for instance the case of Saif Ali Khan who may be all smiles at the box office after the huge opening for Love Aaj Kal but Ramcharan Teja is giving him unlikely competition at a Calcutta multiplex.

His Telugu film which happens to be just his second and this has surprised box-office pundits by running housefull shows consistently at Fame Cinemas in South City Mall. For the record, Magadheera means “great warrior” and this happens to be the first Telugu film to release in a Calcutta plex which became the week’s surprise celluloid success story.

The film has not only beaten Bollywood Friday fare like Ram Gopal Varma’s Agyaat and Satish Kaushik’s Teree Sang but even challenged Love Aaj Kal’s reign at Fame. A source says that since its release last Friday, all the shows of Magadheera have been going houseful.

Audiences are said to be coming in by groups and there are those who are returning for a repeat watch. The owners of the multiplex say that they are definitely playing the film for a second week. Another analyst reveals that films on the death and reincarnation theme always do well in the south. The success mantra for Magadheera even elsewhere is the massive pre-release buzz about the film and the performance of the lead pair as per the distributors and other market analysts. The 40 plus crore film has already earned upwards of nearly Rs 100 crore and is scoring big in the overseas market as well just like Saif’s Love Aaj Kal.

It is heard that at the Kolkata multiplex, the audience for Magadheera has been largely Telugu but the interesting thing is people who don’t understand the language have been coming in big numbers there. Another source says that just during the first four days of its release close to 600 of the members watched Magadheera. Many are planning to return in the second week. The cause for this is said to be the positive Word of mouth publicity. Many say that folks like cousins and others the circles have been recommended the film.

Some of them revealed that they loved the special effects and Ramcharan Teja’s screen presence. As known, Magadheera’s story is spanning four centuries. Even the film’s music has also been a hit in the non Telugu regions and it is hear that though the audience has had to be content with visual feast in the absence of subtitles they relished the movie every bit. In the recent past, Rajanikanth’s Sivaji and Kamal Haasan’s Dasavathaaram have had box-office success in Calcutta while there have been other regional movies like Punjabi that have their own following.

Interestingly, while the latest Bollywood releases that have been pulled out of city theatres after the first week, regional content has invariably sailed into Week II. With Magadheera getting released in only one plex, the makers of the Telugu film Josh are looking at releasing it in more screens.

It appears that “Magadheera” has surely set the ball rolling in a rather big way for the other Telugu biggies and this has been giving big smiles to the regional circuit theater owners and audiences as well.