Krrish, hit in South India

New Delhi, Sep 1: Interest in Bollywood's first superhero in Rakesh Roshan's 'Krrish' may have waned among cinegoers in North and Western India, considered the traditional strongholds of Hindi films, but the film continues to evoke strong interest from audiences in South India, a commendable achievement considering that audiences in these areas are normally believed to give a 'Thumbs Up' to only Hollywood and Tamil and Telugu films.

While the film, after the initial craze, is now on its way to exhausting its run in cinemas in North, West and Central India, Hrithik's superhero role in the film continues to pull crowds in various parts of South India.

Infact, 'Krrish' recently created a record of sorts by becoming the first ever Hindi film to run for eight weeks in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala. What is more, the film has netted handsome returns from the state, which is known for giving a lukewarm response to Hindi films.

In many other parts of South India too, 'Krrish' continues to create theatre records. For example, in Hyderabad, the movie collected nearly Rs six lakh from just three cinema halls where it was being screened in its eighth week.

The remarkable box office show by 'Krrish' is evident from the fact that in contrast to the earnings of the movie collections of films like 'Killer' and 'corporate', which were being screened in their fourth week and sixth week respectively, barely touched a few thousand rupees.

In Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka, the collections of 'Krrish' were nearly Rs three lakh in the eighth week of its run which compared favourably with that of the Hollywood blockbuster 'Pirates of the Carribbean:Dead Man's Chest' which was being screened in just its fourth week. Further, 'Krrish's collections were also on par with those for South Indian language films like the Kannada film 'Manini' (in its opening week), Malayalam film 'Kirti Chakra' (also running in its opening week).

In some cases, the collections of the Bollywood superhero film surpassed that of South Indian language films like the Telugu film 'Cyanide', being screened in its sixth week and Telugu film 'Godavari', being screened in its third week. The buoyancy in collections of 'Krrish' continued in the ninth week of its run in Bangalore. The film's collections of nearly Rs 2 lakh in the ninth week were comparable to the Hollywood films 'Click', in its opening week, and 'Pirates of the carribbean: Dead man's Chest', running in its fifth week as also the Kannada film 'Mohini', running in its second week.

The figures seem all the more amazing since they pertain to those for the original Hindi version of 'Krrish', and not the Telugu and Tamil dubbed versions of the film, which were released simultaneously with the original Hindi version.

In Chennai too, the original Hindi version of the movie has completed nine weeks of its run.

The fact that collections for 'Krrish' in South Indian cinema halls in the eighth week were far more than its earnings in North Indian centres like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Central Indian centres like Bhopal shows that audiences in South India have fallen in love with Hrithik's superhero persona in the film.

Also remarkable were collections of the dubbed Telugu version of 'Krrish', which was released in South India along with the original Hindi version. Infact, the Telugu version of 'Krrish' has just completed nine weeks of its run in several cinema halls in Guntur in Andhra Pradesh and continues to give Hollywood blockbusters and Telugu films a run for their money.

Trade sources said that even in the ninth week of its run, the Tamil and Telugu dubbed versions of the film are going quite strong.

'Krrish', which opened to record breaking collections when it released across the world in June, recently completd of its run in nearly 100 cinema halls of the country, a unique achievement for any film in recent years.

The film is said to have grossed over Rs 150 crores Worldwide in eight week of its run and is well on its way to becoming the third highest box office grosser in Bollywood, after Sooraj Barjatya's 'Hum Aapke Hain Kaun' and Anil Sharma's 'Gadar'.

UNI