New Delhi: After multiple delays, SS Rajamouli’s much-anticipated period drama RRR will arrive in theatres on 25 March. The film was earlier supposed to release for the Dusshera weekend of 2021, after which it was pushed to 7 January right before the third covid wave. Most recently, the team had said it was eyeing either 18 March or 28 April to hit the screens.
RRR that stars Jr NTR, Ram Charan, Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn in lead roles was set to clash with Kartik Aaryan’s horror-comedy Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 at the box office but the latter has now moved its release to 20 May.
Both Telugu and Tamil film industries outdid Bollywood in 2021, partly because big ticket Hindi films started releasing only by November as theatres were closed because of the pandemic. According to trade experts, Telugu cinema led the pecking order with box office collections of Rs. 1,200 crore in 2021, followed by the Tamil film industry at Rs. 800 crore and Hindi at Rs. 700 crore. Ticketing site BookMyShow stated that Telugu and Tamil movies, together, accounted for almost 50% of total tickets sold on the platform last year. In a normal year, Hindi films usually generate 60% of the box office collections.
Most recently, the success of Allu Arjun’s Pushpa: The Rise-Part One, while stamping the clout of the Telugu film industry, is also part of a larger pattern of south Indian language films gaining universal acceptance. Pushpa is the seventh southern language film to cross the Rs. 300 crore mark worldwide, with 35% of its domestic collections coming from Hindi-speaking circuits.
2022 will see several Telugu actors breach linguistic and geographical borders. Prabhas, who already has the Baahubali franchise to his credit, will feature in Radhe Shyam, Adipurush and an untitled film with Deepika Padukone. Vijay Deverakonda’s Liger, is among the list of other upcoming titles that will see Telugu actors crossover, albeit supported by dubbed releases and exhaustive marketing campaigns.
