Cine-Report is a monthly column analysing all the theatrical releases of every month. We analyse in terms of both box office perspective as well as how well a movie was received. ALl the box office numbers are taken from Indian cinema box office tracker Sacnilk.
The month of October started positively with the grand box office success of Devara and unanimous well-received word of mouth for the lovely film, Sathyam Sundaram. October month had started with the success of SWAG and ended with the surprise of Lucky Bhaskar. Remaining all the movies released in this span were a continuous stock of disappointing duds, except Pottel- which was rightfully inclined towards the ideological debate of ‘education-to-everyone’. However, the climax of October is a clean blockbuster with KA, Lucky Bhaskar and Amaran.
The Dull Days of Box Office.
Disclaimer: The Box-office numbers for the movies released on October 31st, only the available Day-1 records were taken into consideration. These movies will feature again next November’s Cine-Report with detailed figures.
October didn’t see any major box office behemoths. There weren’t any major releases that shook the box office numbers which could create a numerical fan-wars on twitter. If you see the numbers as of now (Nov 2nd) the biggest winner of Telugu cinema October month is Sreenu Vaitla’s failed comeback film, Viswam. It grossed around Rs. 15 Crores Worldwide. As of now, Viswam tops the list. However, it is not entirely true. Because, Lucky Bhaskar which released exactly on the month end, 31st October, is having an edge at the box office Rs. 26 Crores had already been grossed at the box office, as per Naga Vamsi’s Sithara Entertainments. So, it might be the box office winner eventually. Kiran Abbavaram’s ‘experimental’ KA also grossed around Rs. 6 Cr and the word of mouth for KA is picking up more quickly than anticipated.
The biggest box-office disappointment which everyone saw coming is the colossal damage of cheap-hacks of KGF, Martin and Bagheera. These Kannada originals dubbed into Telugu found no audience. Martin was too loud to be taken notice of. The hype it generated through the massive teaser campaign on Youtube took everyone by shock. But, later the film dissolved into oblivion. Martin resurfaced again just a week before its Dussehra release and bombed at the box office. It has made Rs. 25 Crores worldwide, which might sound decent. But, it was promoted as a movie with more than Rs. 100 Crore budget. Even if it is believed to be true, the film is a flop and it made just Rs. 2 Crores in Telugu states. Bagheera too performed badly at the box office. It was made on a budget of Rs. 20 Crores, it collected Rs. 3 crores worldwide and made merely Rs. 94 Lakhs in Telugu States.
The three small budget films, Janaka Aithe Ganaka, Ma nanna Super Hero, Narudi Bathuku Natana, also disappointed at the box office. They collected merely Rs. 1.89 Cr, Rs. 1.04 Cr, Rs. 0.41 Cr at the box office worldwide.
The Word of Mouth Above All
The movies that had positive mouth of talk were Hasith Goli’s SWAG and Kiran Abbavaram’s KA. Venky Atluri’s Lucky Bhaskar also had a good word of mouth that is slowly spreading.
The minimum expectations on SWAG were that it will be a funny entertainer because of Sree Vishnu’s quirkiness and Hasith Goli’s goofiness. But, SWAG raised all these and made a subtle and intelligent commentary on gender politics. It won the hearts of audiences emotionally that was over-filled with laughter. “Hasith Goli’s profound progressive politics of gender and wealth; and intelligent wit of Sree Vishnu’s ease of performing four roles makes SWAG a must watch funny enlightening entertainer. Hasith’s second feature after Raja Raja Chora (2021) made a fun and profound cinema without being preachy even for a moment. SWAG will leave a mark on Sree Vishnu as his career’s best performance”, wrote TeluguFunda’s film reviewer.
Lucky Bhaskar was a surprise for Telugu audiences. No one was wishing it to be a flop. We all watch cinema with a good hope that it is going to be good. Lucky Bhaskar raised above and stood as “stunningly executed. It is also written tightly. In Telugu, at least, you don’t find such movies with no loose ends come out often”. Wrote Viswanath reviewing it for TeluguFunda.
The Disappointing Dussehra & Diwali Explosives.
Every movie that was released for Dussehra left a disappointing mark. There were six major releases this Dushera. Rajinikanth’s Vettiyan, Gopi Chand’s Viswam, Alia Bhatt’s Jigra, Sudheer Babu’s Maa Nanna Superhero, Suhas’s Janaka Aithe Ganaka and Dhruv Sarja’s Martin.
Although Jigra and Vettiyan had decent quality content, they both disappointed Vettiyan fared well outside of Telugu States. It had connected around Rs. 250 Crores but only did business of Rs. 12 Crores in AP and TG. Alia Bhatt starrer and Vasan Bala’s directorial Jigra performed much worse at the box office. It had collected merely around Rs. Crore at the global box office. This was another wakeup call to Bollywood which is in the dire of good content and minimum box office collections. Singham Returns that released as a competition to Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 is faring well at the Day-1 numbers. It earned around Rs. 43 Cr at the
Box office and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 earned Rs. 35 Cr on its opening day.
So, despite of having a bad Dussehra, we got a decent Diwali package of ‘experimental’ cinema in the form of KA and instant high-giver in the form of Lucky Bhaskar, admirable actioner from Siva Karthikeyan’s Amaran– which earned him his career biggest Day-1 opening– and the usual Bollywood stuff in the form of Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 and Singham Again which will eventually dusts into vacuum just after a few weeks.
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