One of the hottest film releases in the Kannada film industry this year, The Villain hit the marquee on October 18 and reports say it has collected Rs 20 crore on day one at the box office. This makes it the highest grosser on the first day for any film released in Karnataka till date. According to trade reports, the Sudeep starrer Hebbuli was the highest grosser for a Kannada movie in Karnataka and Baahubali 2 was the highest grosser for a non-Kannada film till date. The Villain has now managed to break these records to grab the top slot.
Directed by Prem, the film has Shiva Rajkumar and Kiccha Sudeep sharing screen space for the first time. With two of the top stars in Sandalwood teaming up for the film, it was expected that The Villain would take such a grand opening. Amy Jackson made her debut in the Kannada film industry with this flick. Others in the star cast include Srikanth, Mithun Chakraborty and Sruthi Hariharan. Arjun Janya has composed the tunes for this movie while Girish R Gowda has cranked the camera.
The Villain has been bankrolled by CR Manohar under his banner Tanvi – Shanvi Films on a budget of Rs 45 crore. According to reports, the producer managed to recover more than half of the budget through the pre-release business. With the first day collections breaking records, this multi-starrer is headed towards breaking quite a few other records in the Kannada film industry.
It may be noted here that the song ‘Bolo bolo Ramappa’ is the highlight of the film with cameo appearances by a number of top heroines such as Rachita Ram, Shanvi Srivastava, Samyukta Hornad, Bhavana Rao, Radhika Chetan and Shraddha Srinath.
The current box office status of The Villain suggests that it could enter the Rs 5 crore club easily.
(Content provided by Digital Native)