Bahubali: The Beginning (2015)
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Bãhubali: The Beginning is...
Bãhubali: The Beginning (159 minutes) is the first part of a two-film, almost-five-hour, Rs240 crore ($40 million) Indian blockbuster released in the Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi languages. Early signs are that it might create Indian box-office history and even if falls short of that somewhat it seems certain to be one of the most profitable Indian films ever. It is the biggest national crossover film from the Telugu industry, and the second in order of time from the South, after Robot/ Endhiran/ Robo (2010), the 'lifetime' profits of which Bãhubali: The Beginning overtook in three days, though not after accounting for inflation.
The official spelling of the film is Bãhubali: The Beginning; the ‘a’ has a wavy diacritical mark above it to indicate the longer (aa) sound. Indpaedia has not put a diacritical mark in its top heading because most readers are likely to search for the film with a plain ‘a.’
Story
A baby boy is miraculously found alive in the middle of a river by a few villagers. They raise him as their own. Named Shiva (Prabhas), the boy grows up to be an adventurous commoner until his past comes back to haunt him. Turns out, Shiva is royalty and heir to the Mahishmati kingdom. Son of the noble king Amarendra Bãhubali (Prabhas in a dual role) and queen Devasena (Anushka Shetty), he must now fight the evil king Bhallala Deva (Rana Daggubati), who tortured his parents and forcefully seized their kingdom. From The Times of India
Mike McCahill, The Guardian, UK adds:
‘The infant Bãhubali could be Moses; shifting a stone shrine several hundred feet, his teenage self is as hefty as Hercules; swinging from vines so as to climb the waterfall his village sits under, he’s as romantic a figure as Tarzan.
‘New frontiers unfold before our eyes: one moment we’re witnessing mildly risqué canoodling in a forest of orchids, the next prowling the streets of a fortified city where hundreds of flogged and flogging extras have been charged with erecting a towering golden statue. (Again with the Moses comparisons.) The final 45 minutes roam a vast battlefield that, with its human shields and Boadicea-style murder chariots, makes Helms Deep resemble a punch-up in a chip shop. At each turn, the money’s right there on screen...
‘Upon scaling that waterfall, the adult Bãhubali (the genial, moustachioed Prabhas) finds he’s strayed into a civil war; only with a glimpse of warrior princess Avanthika (Tamannaah Bhatia) does he sense which side to pick. Their slyly feminist pairing makes some headway, yet that last-act battle forms part of an extended flashback that reveals the full extent of the dynastic tangle they’ve charged into. (The decision to split one epic into two films here makes narrative and economic sense: this mess will require some cleaning up.)
‘It’s merely cute when Bãhubali plunges into a lake to paint the hand the dozing Avanthika has let slip into the waters, yet the action has a lovely pay-off: this impromptu tattoo is seen to complete one on the hero’s bicep during a later embrace.’
Reviews
International
The Guardian, UK
By Mike McCahill
- (4 / 5 stars: 'Dil Dhadakne Do' was awarded ***)
‘fantastic bang for your buck…SS Rajamouli’s two-part epic brilliantly ticks off the blockbuster wish-list, and innovates with it’
The most expensive Indian movie …reportedly set its producers back around $40 million: pocket change by Hollywood standards, a sign of how the movie world’s other half live. Yet for once with these lavish items, the budget isn’t the whole story: the impressive results only set one to wondering why the American studios don’t insist on getting more for their money….
[W]hat’s most striking is how these resources have been marshalled – to enhance, rather than clutter up, the narrative throughline…
In this, Bãhubali demonstrates the pleasing, straight-ahead simplicity of certain videogames: whenever our hero accomplishes a task, some new challenge presents itself.
Throughout, Rajamouli strikes a near-perfect balance between physicality and poetics. That waterfall becomes both mirror and measure of personal growth.
Variety.com
‘ “Baahubali,” the …action epic, looks on course to break the opening day record for an Indian film release. Unofficial data puts the film on a first day gross of $12 million.
‘The film is seen as a major test of the countrywide and international commercial viability of movies from India’s lesser known Tollywood and Kollywood industries.
‘The two-part film was directed by SS Rajamouli and produced by Arka Mediaworks on a budget of $40 million. P&A costs are estimated at a modest $1.5 million, as the production predominantly used social media to connect with the key South Indian audiences and avoided posters or TV advertising…in North India, conventional TV advertising was used to create awareness of the upcoming event film.’
imdb.com
Users gave the film a 9.4 out of 10 rating on imdb.com after the first day. On the sixth morning—based on the first five days’ performance—the rating remained unusually steadfast at 9.4/ 10 from 21,053 users. One Indian trade analyst commented, ‘"Baahubali" is the highest rated Indian film on the site.’
National
The Times of India
By Renuka Vyavahare
Critic's rating: 3.5/5
Avg readers' rating: 4.5/5
‘…manages to enthrall you with its sheer scale and grandeur. Painstakingly made, paying acute attention to detail for the minutest of sound and visuals, Rajamouli… ensures that the larger-than-life execution matches his grandiose vision. It doesn't lack emotional resonance. It manages to be much more than a blood-soaked romp. The heart of the film lies in the simple thought that good is mightier than evil.’
Box office and other earnings
Sources include
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Pre-release business
Initial expectations
Overseas rights were to be sold for a record Rs9 crore
Telugu version alone: AP/Nizam+ KA + overseas theatrical rights were sold for Rs88 crore
plus
Rest of India and satellite etc rights: Just under Rs.18 crore.
Total for Telugu: Rs. 105 crore
Dubbed Tamil and Hindi Versions Their theatrical and satellite are said to have sold for Rs.15-25 crore
Total in all languages: ‘a minimum of 120 Cr and upto 140Cr rivalling Robo in Terms of Pre Release Business,’ Andhra Box Office.com had reported on Aug 12, 2014.
It revised its own estimate a few months later Andhra Box Office.com, with the following details.
Actual figures
Bãhubali part 1 was actually sold for the following sums:
i) The Telugu areas of Nizam (roughly: Telengana) and AP: Rs 66.05 crore (The break up was: Nizam Rs. 23 crore; ‘Ceded’ territories Rs. 13 crore; Vizag Rs. 7 crore; East Rs.5.05 crore; West Rs. 4.5 crore; Krishna Rs. 4 crore; Guntur Rs. 6 crore; Nellore Rs. 3.5 crore)
Karnataka (Telugu and other versions) Rs. 12 crore
Overseas (Telugu and Hindi versions) Rs. 11 crore
Total for the Telugu/ basic version: Rs. 89.05 crore
ii) Tamil Nadu: Rs. 13 crore
iii) Kerala (including Malayalam TV): Rs. 3.25 crore
iv) Rest of India: Rs. 10 crore [In the event, this was recovered in less than two days]
v) Overseas rights of the Tamil version: Rs. 2 crore
Worldwide theatrical Rs. 117.3 crore
vi) Audio and launch: Rs. 3 crore (sold to Lahari/ TV5)
vi) Satellite: Rs. 35-45 crore (sold to Star India, the figure had depended on the success of the Hindi-Urdu version; the film being a nationwide hit, the latter figure is the correct one)
vii) Video, digital, miscellaneous: Rs. 1 crore
Grand total Rs. 156-166 crore (outstripping Robot/ Endhiran)
Domestic box office performance
All language versions
Released on 3500 screens worldwide
Day 1 records:
Bãhubali: The Beginning created Indian national history by earning Rs50 crore on Day 1, setting a new record for the Day 1 collections of an Indian film in any language. Occupancy in South India was almost 90 to 100%, in the other regions of India it was more than 55%. Movie lovers broke theatre windows to enter in Pavagada, Karnataka.
In addition, it earned Rs.16 crore overseas.
Hence total for Day One: around Rs.66 crore.
Gross in all languages put together
Friday: Rs.50 crore (approx.)
Saturday: Rs.48 crore
Sunday Rs.55 crore
First weekend total: Rs.153 crore gross
Previous record:
Happy New Year Rs.108 crore over the opening weekend.
Telugu
Between Thursday 9 July premieres and Friday 10 July, the film collected Rs.14.96 crore
By the end of Friday its cumulative from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana was Rs34 crore ($5.37 million).
Malayalam
Day 1: Rs7crore ($1.11 million) from Kerala
Hindi-Urdu
Friday 10 July: i) According to most sources (and accepted by Indpaedia): Rs.5.15 crore (a record for a film dubbed into Hindi-Urdu); ii) According to Boxofficeindia.com: Rs 4.25 crore net.
Saturday 11 July: i) According to most sources (and accepted by Indpaedia): Rs 7.09 crore; ii) According to Boxofficeindia.com: Rs 6.25 crore net.
(Total of Days 1 and 2: Rs 12.24 crore)(a record for a film dubbed into Hindi-Urdu)
Sunday 12 July: Rs.10.11 crore
Opening weekend, three-day total: Rs 22.35 crore
Monday 13 July: Rs.6.10 crore (This strong Monday showing is unusual for a film in any language. Bahubali bucked the Monday blues.)
Total for first four days: Rs. 28.45 crore.
Tamil Nadu
Day 1: Rs5 crore ($800,000)
In Chennai "Baahubali" collected ₹1.66 crore from 363 shows from Tamil and Telugu versions, this being a record for a film dubbed into Tamil from Telugu. (It beat the Kamal Haasan starrer "Papanasam,"which collected only ₹84.85 lakh from 246 shows in the same three days: though this was Papanasam’s second weekend.)
In Tamil Nadu as a whole it collected ₹10.25 crore in the first two days, and around ₹17 crore from the Tamil and Telugu versions in the three-day weekend.
Overseas box office performance
Broke the first day record of PK
North America
Opening weekend
First weekend (including Thursday previews in some places): $4.5 million (Rs28.6 crore) in North America
USA
Telugu
Thursday 9 July: $ 1,360,201
Friday 10 July: $ 999,975
(Rs 14.96 crore in two days) Patrick Frater, Variety.com estimated a gross $2.5 million from Friday and Thursday night previews.
Opening weekend: Rs.26.66 crore from 170 screens
Tamil
Thursday 9 July: $ 10,850
Friday 10 July: $ 50,821
(Rs39.08 lakh in two days)
Opening weekend: Rs.1.41 crore from 66 screens
Total for opening weekend in the USA: just under $4.5 million
Canada
Thursday 9 July: $ 21,875 (paid previews)
Friday 10 July: $ 25,342
(Rs 23.63 lakh from just two screens)
Patrick Frater, Variety.com estimated $1 million from overseas territories other than the USA are expected to weigh in for combined.
Opening weekend/ Canada
(Telugu version) Rs. 51.65 lakh from 2 screens
(Tamil version) Rs.13.85 lakh from 3 screens.
UK and Ireland
Opening weekend
(Telugu version) Rs31.55 lakh from 10 screens
Australia
Opening weekend
(Tamil version) Rs25 lakh from 18 screens.
For comparisons with other films, see Box office records of Hindi-Urdu films
Cast
Prabhas Bãhubhali / Sivudu
Rana Daggubati Bhalladeva
Anushka Shetty Devasena
Tamannaah Bhatia Avanthika
Ramya Krishnan Sivagami
Nasser Bijjaladeva
Sudeep Aslaam Khan
Satyaraj Kattappa
Prabhakar Kalakeya Chieftain
Crew
Direction, screenplay: S.S. Rajamouli
Writers:
Madhan Karky ..
Rahul Koda
Vijayendra Prasad
Producers
Prasad Devineni
K. Raghavendra Rao
Shobu Yarlagadda
Music: M.M. Keeravani
Cinematography Senthil Kumar
Film Editing Venkateswara Rao Kotagiri
Production Design Sabu Cyril
Art Direction Manu Jagadh
Technical specifications
Total playing time 2 hr 39 min
Sound Mix Dolby Surround 7.1
Aspect Ratio 1.78 : 1 / (high definition)
Camera Arri Alexa (ARRI RAW)