His film Baahubali is running to packed houses across thousands of screens worldwide, but now director S.S. Rajamouli wants to watch it in its full splendour in a theatre here, which has the latest projection technology. The recently renovated AriesPlex SL Cinemas, which boasts the only double 4K projection facility in South India, is set to play host to the director in the coming week.
“It is confirmed that Rajamouli is coming here soon. The date is yet to be decided,” says film-maker B. Unnikrishnan, managing director of AriesPlex SL Cinemas.
According to the theatre manager, the film has been receiving enthusiastic response from moviegoers, and all shows are running houseful. A screen with 4K projection facility can project images at a resolution of 4,096 x 2,160 pixels.
For a film like Baahubali , hailed for its technical wizardry and visual splendour, such a projection retains the original quality in which it was shot. Usually films shot in 4K or more are scaled down to 2K or less resolution for projection at most centres, a fact which seems to have prompted the director to take the trip down South to watch his film at close to original resolution.
Cash registers ringing
Baahubali , the most expensive film in Indian film history at a cost of Rs.250 crore, has broken all existing collection records, reportedly netting Rs.160 crore in the first three days at the box office.
It was released in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi simultaneously.
In Kerala, the wide releasing of the film faced some resistance from State Film Exhibitors’ Federation, the apex body of ‘A’ class theatres in the State.
The association had called for a shut down of all its affiliate theatres over the Premam piracy issue. But the talk in the industry was that the shut down was to thwart the wide release of Baahubali .
“After the first day, most of the theatres which held back the release, decided to drop out of the strike. Right now, the film is running in 146 centres in the State and it is set to increase to 165 soon. It grossed Rs.2.25 crore in the first three days from across the State,” says Raju Mathew, whose Century Films is distributing Baahubali in Kerala.
