Given the kind of hype and hoopla that was generated around Kabali en route its release, it was pretty much a given that down South, film would have a record start. In fact even for the Hindi version, where it was releasing in select pockets on limited screens, a decent opening was on the cards. Kabali garners 5.2 crores net on day 1 (Hindi+ Tamil+ Telugu) in the North India markets, which is a record for a south indian film!!!. These cannot be considered as outright good but then these are not pushover collections either, considering the fact that it is a dubbed film with only Rajinikanth as the selling force.
The film as never expected to take a double digit opening and anything in the vicinity of 5 crore was going to be an acceptable start for Kabali. In that aspect, it has got itself at least some sort of a platform to consolidate on. However, what could prove to be a spanner in the plan is word of mouth. It is better than Rajinikanth’s last release Lingaa but nowhere close to that of Robot. As a matter of fact even Sivaji-The Boss [2007], Rajinikanth’s last (dubbed Hindi) release before Robot, had seen a better reception and even went on to register better occupancy than Jhoom Barabar Jhoom which released on the same day.
Rajinikanth in a still from Kabali
While Kabali has managed to do that by collecting more than Madaari, that doesn’t say much since former is an out and out commercial affair and latter is an offbeat film targeting multiplexes. The real challenge now lies for the film to grow from this point on and then stay consistent during the weekdays. Since Dishoom releases on the coming Friday, Kabali has a week for itself to make maximum moolah.
*Estimates. Final numbers awaited
Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources
