There's less than a month left for the release of director SS Rajamouli's Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, and eager fans just can't wait for the film to hit the screens.
While the film is still in its post-production stage and is expected to wrap up any day now, the makers have already started raking in profits.
No profits in part 1
The makers of the Baahubali series have invested heavily in the two films. In a recent press conference, they revealed that the combined budget of the two versions was around Rs 400 crore to Rs 450 crore.
At the same event, Shobu Yarlagadda, one of the producers, reportedly said that they did not make any profits with Baahubali – the Beginning, which is the prequel to the upcoming film.
“The first part didn’t make any money. That’s what I can tell you. With the second one, we will make a lot of money, which will compensate what we didn’t make with the first part.” he said.
The producers added that they are hoping to get massive returns with the release of the sequel.
Pre-release bonanza
In fact, the makers may have already started reaping the profits ahead of its release.
According to a pre-release break-up provided by industry tracker Ramesh Bala, close to Rs 500 crore was already bagged from selling the theatrical rights of the Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayam and Kannada versions of the film.
The film’s rights were also sold for North America, which includes the United States and Canada, both of which have large native Telugu populations.
The break-up also shows that another Rs 51 crore was pocketed by the makers, when they reportedly sold the Hindi satellite rights to Sony TV Network, while the Telugu version's satellite rights have been sold for Rs 26 crore to Star Network.
#BaahubaliTheConclusion 's Humongous Pre-release Biz WW.. pic.twitter.com/a3rQhtjnp0
— Ramesh Bala (@rameshlaus) February 1, 2017
However, this doesn't even take into account the film's 'overseas rights' barring North America.
Neither do the figures account for the satellite rights of the Tamil version and the Malayalam version. And a big chunk of the profit pie – the audio rights of the film has not been accounted for either.
Although just an estimate, it appears that makers have hit the jackpot with Baahubali 2: The Conclusion.
Confirming that the film has been pre-sold for a profit, even before its release, film critic Sreedhar Pillai breaks the numbers down further.
Writing for Firstpost, Pillai says that the distributors of the film made more profits than the producers, but the latter were raking in money too.
Speaking to Pillai, Baahubali 2 producer Shobu Yarlagadda of Arka Mediaworks confirmed the same.
"Yes, we have already made profits before release from Baahubali 2. We are confident that the film will be another blockbuster and our rights holders will make profits," he told Firstpost.
According to trade reports, the magnum opus will be out in four languages in about 7,000 screens across India and that amounts to 70% of the total number of screens available in India.
Directed by SS Rajamouli, the film stars Prabhas in the title role with Rana Daggubati, Sathyaraj, Nasser, Anushka, Ramya Krishnan, Tammannah and others in the cast.
MM Keeravani has composed music for the movie which has been written by KV Vijayendra Prasad.
The film is bankrolled by Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni under the banner Arka Media Works.
But figures aside, the film will finally give us the answer to why Kattappa killed Baahubali.
Also read: Breaking the mould: How SS Rajamouli delivered some of the most memorable villains in Tollywood