Baahubali 2: The Conclusion continues to topple records in India and abroad. A reported Rs 675 crore is the net box office of the second and concluding part of SS Rajamouli’s period epic. The sequel to Baahubali (20150 was released in the original Telugu and the Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam dubbed versions across 7,000 screens in India and unspecified an number of screens in overseas territories on April 28.
Producer Arka Mediaworks claims that Baahubali 2 has earned more than Rs 1,000 crore worldwide. Since numerous distributors have picked up exhibition rights for Baahubali 2 in India and the world, Arka Media Works remains the final word on the subject. The overseas box office comprises earnings ticket sold in various currencies (including the still-strong dollar and the pound).
The company, led by Shobu Yarlagadda, spent Rs 430 crore on Baahubali and the sequel. Vast sums have been poured into the payments for Rajamouli and the talent and the production design. The story of an internecine struggle for power that results in vengeance and warfare is backed by bravura visual effects and impressive sets created on a scale rarely seen before in Indian cinema.
All the language versions of Baahubali 2 have earned roughly Rs 71 crore at the end of the first week in overseas markets, which includes the United Arab Emirates (the highest grosser) and Australia (the second-highest grosser). The lucrative United States territory, which is home to numerous Telugu-speaking professionals working in the software and information technology industries, has also been very profitable for the swords-and-dhotis epic.
According to the respected American box office tracker Box Office Mojo, Baahubali 2 was released in the US in 425 theatres and chains and earned $12.9 million, or Rs 199 crore, at the end of the first week. Between April 28 and May 4, Baahubali 2 stormed the US box office charts and was placed behind The Fate of the Furious and How to Be a Latin Lover and above The Circle and Boss Baby.
The box office performance of Baahubali 2:The Conclusion cannot be benchmarked against more than a handful of Indian productions. There hasn’t been another Indian movie that has appealed to the audiences attached to the most lucrative linguistic blocks – Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. There have been films in one of these three languages and dubbed in the other two – Endhiran (2010), Dhoom 3 (2013), Dangal (2016) – but none of them has achieved the pan-Indian appeal of Baahubali 2. None of them was released on the scale of Baahubali 2, which occupied every available screen and toppled local releases between Kerala and Assam.
The movie’s success challenges the asusmption that Bollywood is the market leader for Indian cinema. Rajamouli has never made a Hindi movie before, even though his Telugu hits have been dubbed in the language.
The Baahubali movies prove that in order to make a lot of money, you need to spend a lot of it – a lesson that has already been absorbed by the makers of the period film Thugs of Hindostan, set in the pre-Independence era. Produced by Yash Raj Films and directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya, the movie stars Aamir Khan and , Amitabh Bachchan and Fatima Sana Shaikh and explores the exploits of a gang of dacoits who terrorise the British. According to a report on the Bollywood Hungama website, the production of Thugs of Hindostan has been pushed back from June 1 to ensure that the visual effects and sets are at least on par with Baahubali, if not better.
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