Mani Ratnam’s Ponniyin Selvan continues to cross new milestones with each passing weekend. The film had a terrific opening in southern states, while the Hindi version performed fairly decently. However, it has performed far above expectations on its second weekend and earned Rs 1.50 crore on Day 9, bringing its total (in Hindi) to Rs 16.50 crore. The Hindi version of the film is looking at a lifetime collection of Rs 25 crore. The film faced Saif Ali Khan and Hrithik Roshan’s Vikram Vedha as a challenge, but steamrolled over the gangster drama.
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The Hindi figures are as follows:
Day 1 – Rs. 1.85 crore
Day 2 – Rs. 2.50 crore
Day 3 – Rs. 3.25 crore
Day 4 – Rs. 1.40 crore
Day 5 – Rs. 1.75 crore
Day 6 – Rs. 2.50 crore
Day 7 – Rs. 1 crore
Day 8 – Rs. 75 lakh
Day 9 – Rs. 1.50 crore
Total: Rs. Rs. 16.50 crore
The historic drama moved by leaps and bounds through the week and crossed Rs 300 crore worldwide, despite a slight drop. The film has braved the onslaught of new releases and has continued to do astounding business in the south. It is the top opening-week grosser in Tamil cinema history, beating Bigil and Vikram, and according to trade analyst Ramesh Bala, is charging towards the Rs 200 crore mark in Tamil Nadu alone. It is only the fifth Tamil film in history to have made more than Rs 300 crore worldwide, after 2.0, Kabali, Enthiran and Vikram.
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The big budget south films have raced far ahead of Bollywood this year, including RRR, KGF 2 and now Ponniyin Selvan. Star-studded Bollywood films including Laal Singh Chaddha and four of Akshay Kumar’s films flopped at the box office, though Brahmastra’s success did somewhat redeem the film’s industry bad luck this year.
PS-1, based on Kalki’s works, released in theatres on September 30 in five languages — Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. The film stars Karthi, Vikram, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Jayam Ravi, Trisha, and others. The second film is expected to release next year.
