Enthiran increases earnings for Karnataka

The amount spent to make 177 Kannada films in 2009 is around Rs. 350 crores. The amount spent to make Enthiran is Rs. 162 crores. But in terms of recovery, Enthiran made more than Rs. 400 crores during the first week of release, while Kannada films could recover just Rs. 100 crores from all its films. What an irony!

Meanwhile, Rajinikanth's Enthiran is breaking all records worldwide.

Rajinikanth's films are a big success in Karnataka also. The success story started with Basha and Padayappa. The distribution rights of Padayappa were brought at around Rs. 85 lakhs, but Enthiran was brought at Rs. 9.5 crores.

Aaptha Mithra was a huge success in Karnataka and its Tamil version Chandramukhi was obtained at a huge cost of Rs. 3 crores. Kuselan was brought here at a cost of Rs. 2.3 crores. Though Rajni films fill the State treasury with huge collections, the distributors and theatre owners are not entirely happy. They suffered huge losses with Kuselan.

In Bengaluru, all three versions of Enthiran have been released. But the biggest craze is for the Tamil version. Though KFCC had stipulated the film to be released in 25 theatres only, the film was released in more than 50 theatres in the state, which is a gross violation. A huge penalty may be imposed on the erring distributors.

In Bengaluru and Mysore, the ticket rates for Enthiran on the first three days were raised to abnormal levels, as high as Rs. 750 and Rs. 1000 at multiplexes. In some theatres, it was Rs. 300 and Rs. 200. There was no ticket costing less than Rs. 200 for Enthiran. The first week's collections are sure to bring good revenue for the distributors. But one needs to see if the craze and thrill remains in the second week. With the festival holiday week, the ticket rates are likely to continue to be high.

The state government's grand entertainment tax collections from Enthiran should bring them joy. Most TV, FM channels and print media are still discussing Enthiran. If this trend continues this week and next week, the distributors and theatre owners will also have reason to smile.