Mohanlal's Odiyan is among the most anticipated Malayalam films of the year. Made on a huge budget and with a stellar cast, there's a lot riding on the film's success. It is expected to release in 3500 screens in 31 countries. And now, the film's director VA Shrikumar Menon has said that Odiyan has made history by becoming the first ever Malayalam film to make Rs 100 crores from pre-release business.
Tweeting on Monday, Shrikumar said that the movie had entered the Rs 100-crore-club 3 days before its release via advance bookings (including fan shows) and sale of satellite and remake rights. This is the third film from the South and 11th film in the history of Indian cinema to reach a 100-crore pre-release mark, he added. Here's a look at how Odiyan managed to make this business ahead of its release.
Happy to share the news that Odiyan has crossed 100 cr business mark yesterday evening 3 days b4 releaSe. This is the rights and prebooking sale combined figure. 3rd film in south and 11th in Indian cinema history #odiyanrisng @Mohanlal @themanjuwarrier pic.twitter.com/TJEf8mcrl7
— shrikumar menon (@VA_Shrikumar) December 11, 2018
Satellite and remake rights
According to Antony Perumbavoor's Max Lab Cinemas, which is distributing the film, Odiyan has made Rs 21 crore from selling satellite rights to Asianet (Rs 14 cr) and Amritha TV (Rs 7 cr). Sale of Tamil, Telugu and Hindi remake rights along with their satellite rights came up to Rs 19.2 crore.
Rights to Gulf Council Co-operation (GCC) and other countries to screen the films were reportedly sold at Rs 4.7 crore. Further sale of audio and other rights went for Rs 1.8 crore and the Rest of India (ROI) rights of the film was Rs 2 crore.
Pre-sales and advance bookings in Kerala and UAE make Rs 11.5 cr
The film made Rs 11.5 crores from fan show pre-sales and advance booking sales from Rest of India (ROI) and Rest of World (ROW) and from Kerala and the Gulf Countries. The advance payments made by cinema theatres in Kerala came to a total of Rs 17 crores, according to the distributor's estimates.
"There are 430 screens in Kerala itself that will be screening Odiyan. Each multiplex will be playing 2 early morning fan shows and 2 shows each even for the regular times. Some malls such as the Mall of Travancore in Thiruvananthapuram are playing about 36 shows of Odiyan in a single day. And almost all these screens in Kerala have been booked out for one whole week," Lijinesh, a film exhibitor who is part of multiplex group Aries Visyama Max told TNM.
Branding rights sale come to Rs 15 cr
Finally, the movie even made a whopping Rs 15 crore from selling their branding rights. Odiyan's branding partners are Confident group, Myg, Hedge and others, Airtem SIM, Kingfisher and other sponsors. With this, the grand total of pre-release business done was pegged at Rs 101.2 crores.
Certain film screen owners are, however, wary of the film's startling commercial success before it even hits the screens, calling it a publicity stunt by the distributors. "There is no way that they can make Rs 100 crore from just pre-release business. A lot of big films are given such publicity to arose people's curiosity," owner of Liberty Cinemas, Basheer, told TNM.
However, others disagree with this. "In the Indian market, there are a few films which hit the Rs 100 crore pre-release business mark. All of Rohit Shetty's films in Bollywood, Murugadoss and Shankar's films and even Rajinikanth's hit the 100 cr- pre-release business mark. Therefore Odiyan making Rs 100 crore is not surprising as the film has made a big splash," film reviewer Maneesh Narayanan told TNM.
Odiyan will mark the directorial debut of ad filmmaker VA Shrikumar Menon in the Malayalam film industry. It has Prakash Raj playing a pivotal role and interestingly, he is sharing screen space with Mohanlal, after nearly two decades. The last time they worked together was in the Mani Ratnam directorial Iruvar.
Manju Warrier plays the female lead in this film and the rest of the cast includes Innocent, Siddique, Manoj Joshi, Nandhu, Narain, Kailash, Sreejaya Nair, Sana Althaf and Appani Sarath. The film is scripted by National Award winner K Hari Krishnan.
M Jayachandran has composed the soundtrack of the film while Sam CS is in charge of the background music. Shaji Kumar is the cinematographer for this venture and John Kutty is the editor.The film has been produced by Antony Perumbavoor under his banner Aashirvad Cinemas.