Hariharan all praise for Baahubali

One of the finest works in Indian cinema, says the filmmaker who is all set to helm another big budget film

Hariharan knows a thing or two about making films on large canvasses. Remember Pazhassi Raja . Jog down memory lane further, you will remember Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha as well.

Getting ready to direct another big film – Syamanthakam , an episode from the life of Lord Krishna, he says this about Baahubali , which has already become one of the most successful Indian films of all time, “It is brilliant, and is easily one of the finest works ever in Indian cinema.”

“It is not easy to make a film like

Baahubali and director S.S. Rajamouli deserves full credit for conceiving and executing it,” says the National-award winning director over phone from his home in Chennai.

Hariharan has watched the movie twice. “I had watched it here in Chennai on the first day itself, but it was the original version in Telugu,” he says. “Since I couldn’t comprehend the dialogues I watched the Tamil version as well.”

He says it is the technical aspects that made Baahubali click. “There is nothing unusual about the storyline,” he says. “We have several such tales from our mythologies, but Rajamouli has shown how the technical advancements in movie should be made use of properly.”

Big in Kerala, too

Not surprisingly, Baahubali is doing great business in Kerala too. Though its release had to be limited to around 50 theatres initially, because of a strike by exhibitors, it is currently being screened in over 125.

Mollywood’s disastrous run at the box office continues.

Except for Madhuranaranga , the remaining Ramzan releases tanked as per the estimates of the Kerala Film Chamber of Commerce and Kerala Film Exhibitors’ Federation.

“The flops include Mammootty’s Ache Din , Dileep’s Love 24X7 , and Unni Mukundan’s KL-10 . Madhuranaranga may sail through and recover the cost,” said P.V. Basheer Ahamed, president of the Kerala Film Exhibitors’ Federation, the combine of ‘A’ class cinemas in the State. “Mammootty’s Ache Din will get a relief from the sale of satellite rights but others may not,” he added.

Mollywood’s combined loss this year up to July-end would have easily crossed the Rs.100-crore mark going by the flops.

“Only Vishu festival season had offered some kind of relief for the otherwise abysmal box-office run of Malayalam films in 2015. Returns from the sale of satellite rights were also cut down by half or more compared to the earlier times after television houses applied the brakes. A movie, which could have earned Rs.3 crore earlier, may now get only Rs.1.5 crore or less,” pointed out K. Nanda Kumar, president of the Kerala Film Chamber of Commerce, the apex body in Malayalam film industry.

The other language movies released this Eid gave Mollywood a run for its money by breaking all expectations. “The magnum-opus Bahubali (still running) may earn about Rs.6-7 crore share in Kerala alone. Actor Salman Khan’s blockbuster Bajrangi Baijaan could walk all the way to the bank with at least Rs.1.5 crore. Hollywood movie Jurassic World bagged about Rs.2 crore share from the State,” said Mr. Nanda Kumar. Raju Mathew of Century Films, which distributed Bahubali in Kerala, said Mollywood would have to take up aggressive marketing and promote wide releases to stay afloat. “We need more and more audiences to watch the movies in the first few days of release to recover the cost and check the impact of movie piracy,” he said.

Contributions by

P.K. Ajith Kumar and

G. Krishnakumar