Monday, July 16, 2007

Sivaji to set Hindi heartland on fire - The Economic Times

CHENNAI: The saga of Rajnikant’s blockbuster Sivaji continues to rock the Indian box office, as is the case with the overseas market too.

Enthused by the response to Sivaji across India, AVM Productions, the producers of this costliest movie ever made in the country, are now planning to dub it in Hindi. The intention is to release it across a wider market in the Hindi heartland, as well as other regions to capitalise on the Sivaji wave, which continues to sweep even in its fifth week.

AVM Productions, which was under pressure from the distributors in north for more prints, ever since the film was released on June 15, has taken a formal decision to dub the movie in Hindi and release it now.

The production house, which was awaiting the return of the film’s director Shankar, and music director A R Rahman, both of whom were abroad when the film released, has got their nod.

Confirming the decision to dub Sivaji in Hindi, SC Babu, CEO, AVM Productions & AVM Studios, said: “The response has been phenomenal for the movie, across all markets, ever since it was released. In its fifth week, about 30-plus prints are being screened somewhere or the other beyond the Vindhyas in the country. It is a record of sorts for any Tamil movie,” he told ET.

At the last count, it was running in five screens in Delhi, three in Kolkata, which came down to two due to heavy rains, besides cities like Pune, Jaipur, Lucknow. At one point, Sivaji was being screened in eight screens in Mumbai. “In Bhiwandi, it has created a record by registering continuous housefull shows, an unheard of proposition over the past 18 years in that centre,” says Mr Babu.

According to him, leading theatre chains â€" Inox and PVR â€" have been promoting the film aggressively across north Indian markets. “If we had gone for a complete digital release of the movie, we could have released Sivaji in at least 120 screens across north India,” he said.

Sources estimate that Sivaji would have raked in around Rs 1.5 crore so far from the north Indian market. “This is at least 8-10 times of what a Tamil movie would have collected across this region,” sources said. Meanwhile, Ayngaran International, which acquired the overseas rights for Sivaji, is planning to dub the movie and release it in China and Japan.
 
 
 


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