Samantha has made quite a stir at the Telugu box office. Her action-comedy-drama is the one they are talking about now – the top-earning female-fronted film in the language, with a 17-year-old record in tatters. You can hear it in the trade and see it in the way fans have been celebrating.
A record rewritten at the box office
It is the kind of run you can’t put down to hype. Trade figures show the film was up to Rs 78.71 crore globally by Day 10 and then to Rs 83.12 by Day 12. Since coming out on June 19, the makers have it at over Rs 83 crore in total, with a Rs 50 crore net from India alone.
You could see the uptick on Day 10 when India’s net went up 8.2 per cent to Rs 5.30 crore, up from Rs 4.90 the day before. That put the India net at Rs 48.25 crore and the gross at Rs 55.86. For a film with a woman in the lead, that is something you don’t see every day.
Here is what the trade and the fans are making of it:
– Global gross by Day 12: Rs 83.12 crore
– Day 10 worldwide gross: Rs 78.71 crore
– India net total: Rs 48.25 crore
– India gross total: Rs 55.86 crore
– Day 10 India net jump: 8.2%
– India net crossed: Rs 50 crore
Fans crown a new queen, makers double down
Her own banner, Tralala Moving Pictures, didn’t mince words: ‘BANGAARAM writes history in GOLDEN LETTERS. #MaaIntiBangaaram becomes the HIGHEST GROSSING FEMALE-LED FILM EVER in Telugu cinema.’ Then social media had its say, with plenty of ‘queen’ and ‘superstar’ in the comments.
The 17-year benchmark Samantha toppled
There was only one name in town for a while. In 2009, Kodi Ramakrishna’s Arundhati, with Anushka Shetty and Sonu Sood, made a then-remarkable Rs 70 crore. Maa Inti Bangaaram has put those days behind it.
Others have come close. Nag Ashwin’s Mahanati did over Rs 75 crore, but you had an ensemble with Dulquer, Vijay Deverakonda and Samantha to thank for that. Gunasekhar’s Rudhramadevi made Rs 86 or so, but it had Allu Arjun and Rana Daggubati in the mix. This is different because it is a solo act.
If you ask around, the point is that even after the box office has been redefined by Baahubali, Pushpa, KGF and Kalki 2898 AD, no commercial film with just a woman in front had got past Arundhati. Until this one.
What is powering Maa Inti Bangaaram
BV Nandini Reddy has given us a film with mass appeal and a sense of humour. You have Samantha, of course, and then Gulshan Devaiah, Diganth Manchale, Sreemukhi, Manjusha Mukkavilli and Gautami. The reviews were in and the goodwill has been there to keep the numbers up on weekdays as well as weekends.
It is a Rs 20 crore venture from Tralala, with Samantha, Raj Nidimoru and Himank Duvvuru at the helm. (They also put it out in Tamil as Engal Thangam.) They’ve told us they had already made back a good part of the outlay on non-theatrical rights, which let them be bold with the release.
How this stacks up in South India
Put it in a wider context and the big fish is still in Malayalam. Lokah: Chapter 1 – Chandra, from Dominic Arun and with Kalyani Priyadarshan and Naslen, has done in excess of Rs 300 crore. Even Dulquer, who produced it, has said he was fine with taking a hit to get the superhero universe off the ground, and was taken aback by how it performed.
What comes next
More than a number, this is a statement. The film has done better than some of the male-led ones in its time slot, and that is a change of pace for the industry. Now we will see how long it can stay in the theatres and if anyone is ready to put their money where the bar has been set for the next female-led project.
