A Hindi, Tamil or Telugu film joining the 100 crore club may no longer be breaking news. But a Malayalam film collecting Rs.100 crore at the box office certainly is.
The Mohanlal-starrer Pulimurugan took that honour within a month after it was released on October 7. The action film, the highlight of which is the digitally enhanced fight sequences involving the hero and a tiger, had created an unprecedented frenzy from day one itself. There were full houses for shows that started 1 a.m..
The opening was so good that the film’s producer Tomichan Mulakupadam and director Vysakh, had sounded confident about the prospects of Pulimurugan breaking the Rs.100-crore barrier, when they spoke to The Hindu three weeks ago.
But, not everyone was so sure. After all, no Malayalam film had done a business more than Rs.75 crores, which Drishyam , another Mohanlal-starrer, earned.
“Nobody could have expected Pulimurugan to make Rs.100 crores, that too within a month,” says M. Padmakumar, who had directed Mohanlal in the 2010 hit Shikar . “It is no doubt a big achievement for Malayalam cinema; its success surely would encourage our producers to spend more on films.”
Mr. Tomichan had spent Rs.25 crores on Pulimurugan , when you could make a Malayalam film featuring a superstar for less than Rs.7 crores. It was not just in the making of the film that he invested, but on marketing as well. “I backed my instinct, though I knew I was taking a big gamble,” he explains.
He had also ensured that the film reached far beyond the borders of Kerala. Besides major Indian cities and the Gulf countries, where a large number of Malayalis live. It was also released in Europe, including Poland.
The century scored by Pulimurugan becomes all the more significant when you consider the fact the reach of Malayalam cinema is far less than that of Hindi, Tamil or Telugu. Interestingly, the film came after the success of another Mohanlal film, Oppam , directed by Priyadarshan.
