Actors Mammootty, Mohanlal, Prithivraj, Dulquer and Nivin rule the market in Kerala, but the Malayali audience has always been crazy about Tamil stars like Rajinikanth, Kamal, Ajith and Vijay.
The craziness however has reached an all new high with Kabali, Rajanikanth’s movie set to release this Friday.
The film will be screened in over 306 theatres across the state, with close to 2000 shows a day. For film exhibitors and the audience alike, this would be the first time that a non-Malayalam film would be released extensively.
Malayalam superstar Mohanlal is releasing the film in Kerala.
Tickets in most of the theatres in districts such as Thrissur, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, Eranakulam and Palakkad have already been sold out.
Liberty Basheer, president of Film Exhibitors Federation said that they are looking forward to a collection of at least 3 Cr rupees on the first day, though the morning show is instrumental in deciding it. This, he says, would be a first-timer in the state, as most of the Malayalam big releases were screened in not more than 130 theatres.
“Even for Mammootty and Mohanlal films, they would be screened in 100 theatres on an average, and maximum would be 130, not more than that. Other Tamil films including Rajinikanth movies have been hugely successful in the state, but were never released in such magnitude,” Basheer says.
Though the official list of theatres stands at 306, Basheer says that four more would be added on Friday morning in districts like Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram.
He attributes the overall hype created around the film to be the main reason for the mammoth release.
“We have not had any major releases after Eid. The number of shows for movies like Mammootty starrer Kasaba and Asif Ali starrer Anuraga Karikkin Vellam has been reduced to accommodate Kabali,” he says.
However, Basheer feels that the hype would die down after the first three days of release of the film. “That’s the general trend we see. A major part of bookings for the first day are from fan clubs and for the weekend it would be what we call ‘the mass audience’ who come to watch the film. Post that the number of theatres that screen the film would drop drastically,” he says.
Of the three hundred theatres odd in the state, Thrissur district itself has 23 theatres that will screen the movie in six different shows, beginning at 6 in the morning.
Ananthu, duty officer at PVR Cinemas in Lulu Mall in Kochi said that they have been receiving enquiries since the past week. When the theatre opened pre-booking on Thursday morning, the tickets were sold out in a matter of two hours. Kabali would be screened in 4 out of the 9 screens at PVR Cinemas at the mall with 20 shows on the first day.