Thala 55 - Shooting Spot Stills - Ajith, Anushka, Gautham Menon

Kerala Box Office : Top 5 Movies in Dec - Jan

Kerala Box Office : Top 5 Movies in Dec - Jan

Here's the Box Office update of films that did well during the months of December (2013) & January (2014) @ Kerala Box Office

1. Drishyam

Enough has been said about the film already. With about 30 crores gross, from Kerala, in 46 days the film is the biggest Malayalam hit ever. It also becomes the first Malayalam film to earn more than 40 crore [including all kinds of revenues]

 All Time Blockbuster - Industry Hit

2. Oru Indian Pranayakadha

The only Malayalam film to survive the 'Drishyam onslaught'. The film has a mega hit run @ most of its centers. Sathyan Anthikkadu factor, Perfomances of Fahad-Amala and Drishyam returns helped the film to reach success levels. 

Super Hit

3. Jilla

The film took the biggest ever opening in Kerala, but then fell due to average WOM. Life time gross expected to be around 9 crores.

Above Average - Safe for distributor [If Distribution rights were 'sold' for 3.5cr, Super Hit if its instead of Mohanlal's revenue]

4. Dhoom 3 

According to reports Dhoom 3 is the biggest Bollywood grosser in the state. The film continued at almost all centers in 2nd week and made come backs at few centers 2 weeks later.

All Time Blockbuster

5. Veeram

Even though film got good reports it didn't translate into collection.

Average - Loss for distributor

Fate of Other Notable Releases

Silence - Flop

Salala Mobiles - Disaster

Ezhu Sundara Rathrikal - Disaster considering theatrical revenues, but the producers covered all expenses from non-theatrical avenues even before the release

1983 - Released on Jan 31, took average opening but reports are extremely positive

Jilla vs Veeram - Kerala Box Office Update

Jilla vs Veeram - Kerala Box Office Update

Veeram

 Sree Kaleeshwary initially signed for Veeram Kerala distribution rights @ 1.30 crore. But once Jillla was confirmed on the very same date, after much negotiations the rate came down to 78-80 lakhs. Including Print & Publicity of about 15 lakhs the total investment by the distributor is about 95 lakhs. Even though the film had better WOM the release time was bad [as per Kerala business was concerned], it got squeezed between Jilla and Drishyam and couldn't really get going. The film will be a losing venture for Sree Kaleeshwary with final distributor share coming in the range of 75 lakhs, costing them about 20 lakhs. After the release the 'in-ground' promotion was lukewarm from the distributor side too. The Kerala theatrical run is about to be terminated with film still playing only in a handful of theaters.

Jilla

Two of the biggest Crowwd pullers in the state uniting for the first time helped the film to take the biggest ever first day and opening weekend in the history of Kerala Box Office. But the WOM was mixed, plus the Drishyam phenomenon affected the films longer prospects too. The film when reports last came in had grossed between 8.5-9cr with distributor share of about 3.5 crore plus. 

The confusing fact about Jilla is regarding the distribution rights, the figures quoted is 3.5 crore [extra 15 lakhs for print & publicity], but there is no clarity regarding whether its a separate deal or instead (or a part) of Mohanlal's acting fees [Since its distributed Mohanlal's own Max Lab/Aashirvad]. If the former case is true, Jillla will also cost the distributor a few lakhs in the final tally. The film will be Vijay's 2nd biggest grosser in the state, falling well short of Thupppakki.The film is running in more theaters compared to Veeram, But will also terminate within a week or two.

So while 'Gross' wise Jilla is miles ahead of Veeram, but based on 'Returns on Investment' there's nothing much to separate both films.

Veeram - Movie Review

 

Veeram - Exclusive Movie Review

Directed by     Siva
Produced by     Bharathi Reddy
Written by     Bharathan (dialogues)
Story by     Bhoopati Raja
Music by     Devi Sri Prasad
Cinematography     Vetri
Editing by     Kasi Viswanathan
Studio     Vijaya Productions
Release dates   January 10, 2014
Running time     161 minutes
Country     India
Language     Tamil

   

Cast

    Ajith Kumar as Vinayagam
    Tamannaah as Kopperundevi
    Vidharth as Shanmugam
    Bala
    Munish as Siva
    Suhail Chandhok as Kumaran
    Nassar
    Pradeep Rawat
    Santhanam as Pichai Muniyandi
    Ramesh Khanna
    Avinash
    Appukutty
    Thambi Ramaiya
    Abhinaya
    Manochitra
    Vidyullekha Raman
    Suza Kumar
    Ilavarasu
    Mayilsamy
    Devadarshini
    R. N. R. Manohar
    Paruthiveeran Sujatha
    Amit Kumar Tiwari
    Kalairani

Ajith in a 'Vetti Chattai' doing a village based mass role after a long time was the main USP of Veeram and Siva delivered a perfect entertainer meeting the expectations.

Veeram is the story of Vinayagam, a one man army with heart of gold, darling of masses, his brothers and his love interest Goppurendevi (Gopu). The first half deals with the brothers with the help of Santhanam trying to make Gopu & Vinayagan fall in love, so that they themselves can introduce their love interests before their brother and marry them. While the second half story shifts to Gopu's house and native village where Vinayagan not only has to earn the love & respect of her family members but also deal with another enemy who is trying to eliminate Gopu's family

Story is nothing new or unique but its the Presence of Thala as the towering personality and Siva's smart packaging that makes it work. Its an out an out Ajith show, he oozes charisma even while simply standing. The screen presence he had in Veeram is impeccable which was sort of missing in his last 2 films.

Siva packaged an average script with perfection. The dialogues were very powerful and had punch, especially the one liners mouthed by Ajith. Camera, Editing jobs are well done. The locations are apt and beautiful and even @ 160+ mins it doesn't drag much. Santhanam's comedy in 1st half worked out very well.
The Interval action bloack in train was good, but nothing like it was hyped thanks to shoddy VFX. BG was terrific.

The biggest negative is the age old script and uneven script. The 1st & 2nd half are like 2 different movies. Tamannaah got a comparatively meatier role, but a holy mess of it, especially in emotional scenes. Her chemistry with Ajith didn't work out and their romantic duet songs were plain bad. Even though DSP scored in BG score the songs were average, so was its choreography. Action choreography apart from interval block was average. Santhanam's character got lost some where in the second half. The 4 brothers apart from Vidarth did average job only.The movie also lacks a powerful villain.

Siva using the image of Thala Ajith perfectly, mixing all the right ingredients in the perfect combination has given a good entertainer. Even though its no where near to being perfect, watch it for Thala, if for nothing else.

Rating: 3/5

The Mighty 'Head' Rules !!!

Veeram - Kerala Distribution Latest Updates

Sree Kaleeshwary who bought Kerala distribution rights for 'Veeram' has been in great dilemma for the past few months, reason their 'Veeram' clashing a film which is most probably going to get the biggest release Kerala has ever seen, Jilla.

 They bought the rights thinking that Jilla will be postponed to April. But after Jan 10 has been fixed as the release date for Jilla they are caught in a soup, because they also have Trivandrum area rights for Jilla. Now clashing with a film featuring 2 of the most popular stars of the state is a very bad idea for any other movie. So SK is now trying to resell Veeram as backing out was not an option for them. They have been looking for & making talks with interested buyers, but the price quoted by them will cost SK badly. Finally after much talks they have got better offers for Ernakulam & Malabar area  which they might end up selling soon . But they might hang on to Trivandrum area where they will have to distribute it along with Jilla.

If there are no other releases on same date and the X-mas releases hit Holdover Veeram could get 60-70+ theaters, and if there is 2+ days gap with Jilla the numbers could cross 100 as well, provided Verram hits the screen first.

Mohanlal's Geethanjali postponed to accommodate Diwali releases ?

Geethanjali is one of the most awaited Malayalam movies of the year, because of the fact that it is a spinoff of 'Manichithratazhu', an all time classic. When the shooting began the idea was to release the movie during Pooja holidays [Oct 11th] and they were shooting with multiple units too. Then it was pushed to Nov 1st to get a solo, wide release.

But once the release date of Diwali movies were announced the film got again pushed ahead by two weeks. Geethanjali will now be releasing worldwide on November 14th. When Nov 1 was decided Only Krrish 3 was supposed to have a big release on that date, it was later that Tamil films - Ajith's Arrambam & Karthi's All in all Azhagu Raja joined the race. Both of these film were supposed to have arrived in different dates, but one got postponed and other preponed.

Other language movies [Hindi & Tamil] have a good market in Kerala cause majority of the people understand the language [If Telugu undubbed movies release with subtitles even those will have audience]. So theaters and distributors have made a lot of investments in these projects. So if a Mohanlal starrer gets released on that date it will eat into the screen count and opening week collections of other language movies. So it was idea suggested by Exhibitors federation too postpone the release as Geethanjali is also to benefit from the movie. Since 90% of the life time collections of most of the OL movies comes in the first week (or may be two weeks) it will be easy for Geethanjali to have a wide release on 14th.

So a win-win situation for both parties. But there was no other way possible for makers of Geethanjali than to postpone. Remember in 2011 when similar situation arose the exhibitors called for strike on some unnecessary reason to support Velayudham, 7am Arivu & Ra.One which were much bigger films than this year's OL Diwali releases.

Arrambam - Exclusive Preview/Story/Synopsis

It has been 15 months since the last Ajith film hit the screens. Ever since it was announced that film following 'Billa 2' will see a reunion of Billa team [Ajith, Vishnu Vardhan, Nayanthara, Yuvan, Sreekar Prasad] etc the hype has been paramount. Everything including the title of the film was kept under tight wraps. Now with just 2 weeks to go for the mega release majority have no idea about what the plot of the film, well according to sources got a basic idea of what the film is about. [What follows the image might end up as Spoiler, so continue at your own risk]

According to sources Ajith plays a commando in a security force like NSG & Rana Daggubati as his 'buddy pair' & close friend. The get called into action during the Mumbai 26/11 terror attacks where something unexpected happens. The event shooks Ajith's character so bad that he goes to unexpected lengths to solve some mysteries and find the culprits who are responsible for 'something' that happened that day.

The negative shade of Ajith that we saw in the trailer could very well represent this change.

Aarya plays the role of a computer hacker whom Ajith seeks help from in his mission [just like in sword fish/Die Hard 4] . Nayanthara is reportedly paired opposite Rana [unconfirmed] & Taapsee opposite Aarya. Talking more about the film might ruin the suspense, so lets leave it at that, plus sources can also go wrong at times.....

Unlike usual action films the film deals with a very important issue underneath, something that even the media ignored during the 26/11 attacks. So Arrambam is the mission of one man to find the truth and bring to justice the culprits.

The film has been censored yesterday with clean 'U' certificate by Chennai censor board. Censor board members reportedly appreciated the makers for their noble intentions and making an entertaining film out of it. The film will hit the screens on October 31st as Diwali release world wide.

Vijay's Jilla vs Ajith's Veeram for Pongal 2014 - Is it a Good Idea ?

 The title of Ajith's 54th film has been officially confirmed via Press Release as 'Veeram'. It has also been mentioned that the film will be hitting the screens during Pongal 2014, the date which has already been fixed for Vijay's next 'Jilla', which also features Super Star Mohanlal in a prominent role.

'Pongal' is a big festival which can very much accommodate two biggies in Tamil Nadu they say, but still when two super stars of equal status collide it surely will eat into each others collection, a big no no in the current scenario.

It is believed that the release date of 'Veeram' will be pushed to January 24th, Republic Day weekend. Jilla is far ahead in terms of filming and promotion as nothing much is known about 'Veeram'. So by pitching its release date with Jilla will create enough buzz among people. This is what belevied to be the strategy of the PR for 'Veeram'. they will most probably let go this until 1 month or 2 to Pongal and postpone the release date (or may be even pre pone).

Also the clashing of biggies is gonna affect 'Veeram' more than Jilla - How? let's look

In TN both film will be received equally, eventhough fans claim theirs will be the bigger one. But it all depends upon the power of the makers & distributors. Those who get better screens and more show times will be the winner in such a closely contested scenario. But Now Tamil films are not just confined to TN alone. The 3  important markets where the simultaneous release could affect are Kerala, Andhra & Karnataka.

In Kerala 'Veeram' might not even get proper screens to release simultaneously as Jilla stars two of the most popular stars in the state & Ajith's fan following is no where near to that of Vijay, who is the uncrowned prince among other language stars. In Andhra 'Jilla' won't be making much of an impact as Vijay has meager fan base there. But Ajith who has a much better fan base in AP will have to clash with one of Telugu cinema's current biggest super star Mahesh Babu's '1'. In Karnataka too the films will have to fight for the limited screens available for other language movies. In all other circuits it again depends upon who the 'early bird' i, to catch more screens.

So with all these 'Theories' in mind we are hoping that 'Veeram', being the later one to announce the release date, will be pushed ahead.


Jilla is directed by Nesan & Stars Vijay, Mohanlal, Kajal Aggarwal, Poornima Bhagyaraj etc

Veeram is directed by 'Siruthai' Siva & Stars Ajith, Thamanna, Vidarth etc

Ajith's 'Arrambam' - Exclusive First Look Stills

credits: Star Ajith, Arrambam FB Page