Actor Prabhas’s Saaho, made on a whopping budget of Rs 350 crore, will be releasing in 10,000 screens in India alone, beating Superstar Rajinikanth’s 2.0 record.
Speaking to TNM, a member from the Saaho promotion unit, said, “The film will release in 10,000 screens in India. In the Telugu states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the film will be released in more than 2,000 screens.”
2.0, which also starred Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, was released in 10,000 screens globally. Saaho will be released on August 30 in four languages -- Telugu, Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam - and has become the first Telugu film to get a Twitter emoji.
Prabhas has become a pan-Indian star following the phenomenal success of Baahubali: The Beginning and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion. The second film in the Baahubali franchise had released in 9,000 screens globally.
The trailer of Saaho, which came out recently, showed Prabhas pulling off action sequences with elan, and succeeded in creating mass euphoria among the Telugu audiences. And understandably so, because Saaho is his first film after the Baahubali series -- after a long gap of two years.
The full list of countries where Saaho will be releasing is not known yet. However, Bollywood trade analyst Taran Adarsh told TNM that this was the biggest film to come out in recent times.
"Saaho is definitely going to be one of the biggest releases, if not the biggest. It is a huge project. While it is too early to comment on the number of theatres and its locations, it can be said for certain that it will have a wide release globally," he said.
According to reports, the makers want to hike the price of the ticket to Rs 200 in single screens in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana during the first few days. While exorbitant tickets have become a norm in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana too witnessed a hike for Mahesh Babu’s Maharshi. Though the Telangana government had denied permission for hiking the prices, the producers went ahead citing a High Court order. Tollywood producers claim that big budget films can make a profit only if they hike the price of tickets for the first week.
Although it has been reported that online media streaming platform Amazon has bagged the rights of the film for Rs 40 crores, the film unit told TNM that the negotiations are still underway. They are also tight-lipped about the satellite rights of the film, but according to reports, the satellite rights for Telugu, Malayalam and Tamil have been sold for Rs 70 crore while Hindi has fetched another Rs 70 crore.
Yash Raj Films is distributing the film abroad.
According to IBN Times, the theatrical rights of Saaho have earned Rs 124 crore from the Telugu states, Rs 28 crore from Karnataka, Rs 20 crore from Tamil Nadu, Rs 6 crore from Kerala, Rs 70 crore from north India, and Rs 42 crore from all the international markets, thereby making Rs 290 crore in total.
Bollywood actor Shraddha Kapoor is paired opposite Prabhas in Saaho. The film, directed by Sujeeth, also has Arun Vijay, Mandira Bedi, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Jackie Shroff, Chunky Pandey, and Mahesh Manjrekar among others in the cast.