For over three decades, two men — Mohanlal and Mammootty — have straddled the Malayalam film industry as undisputed superstars.
Over the last month, the burly Mohanlal has transported himself to a different orbit, with the earnings for his movie Pulimurugan breaking all previous Malayalam movie industry records.
The movie, released on October 7, has reached the magical figure of Rs1 billion (Dh54.91 million) in collections within just a month, more than what any Malayalam movie has earned in history.
The break-up of the collections is also a pointer to the actor’s influence on moviegoers in Kerala and the UAE: Of the Rs1 billion collected, Rs650 million is from theatres in Kerala, and Rs150 million from the UAE. The earnings in UAE came in a mere three days.
More than 165,592 fans went to see the film over the weekend across the Emirates. The closest competitor was Benedict Cumberbatch superhero film Doctor Strange, which recorded a footfall of 90,000 over the same period.
Industry reports also indicate that the movie is doing well in the US and European markets. Besides the theatre collections, the movie is also doing well in earnings from remake, satellite and overseas rights.
Pulimurugan had also become the first Malayalam movie to collect Rs500 million in the shortest time — within 25 days. That achievement broke the record of another Mohanlal starrer, Oppam.
Pulimurugan was produced at a cost of Rs250 million by Tomichan Mulakupadam and directed by Vysakh. Other key players in the making of the movie were stunt choreographer Peter Hein, scriptwriter Udayakrishna, cinematographer Shaji, and music director Gopi Sunder.
On the success of his movie, Mohanlal wrote on social media, “This is made possible by each and every one of the audience who watched this movie in the theatre”.
Among those who watched the movie was Kerala chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan.
Two other Mohanlal starrers, Oppam and Janata Garage are also doing well in the theatres, making it a memorable hat-trick of mega hits for the star.
Pulimurugan is continuing to run to packed audiences, prompting analysts to predict that the movie may cross Rs1.50 billion in collections.
