Shivaji spurring North Indian distributors

By: Settu Shankar
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Rajini's Shivaji has got publicity for Tamil Cinema like never before. Rajinikanth fever has never ever spread so far and wide in India. Despite being only in Tamil and Telugu, the film has received an excellent response from Northern India. Hindi film distributors are showing a never before seen interest in the rights of the film.

Not only is Shivaji gaining from this hype, Rajini's previous films too seem to interest film distributors, with offers coming in for the rights of the Superstar's earlier films. Distributors want to dub films like Padyappa.

The AVM released the film only in Tamil in Northern India (including Delhi). The overwhelming response to the film has surprised the distributors because Tamil is not at all well spoken in North India. There have been requests to increase the supply of prints to theatres in the region. Shivaji is at present running in 40 theatres in North India cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Pune and Nagpur.

The Box Office pundits say that had a Hindi version of the film been released, the film would have been much bigger a success than it has already become. The latest gossip doing its rounds is that a Mumbai based distribution house has acquired the Hindi dubbing rights of some Rajinikanth films like Padayappa and Annamalai. AVM too has plans of doing the same with Rajinikanth films that have been made under their banner.

The Shivaji DVD sales too have gone up by 40% in Northern India after movie release. Moserbaer, the DVD right holders of the Superstar's earlier hit Basha, have seen an incredible increase in the DVD sales of the film. After tasting success with Basha, they have decided to dub the film in Hindi for TV and theatrical release. Filmy, another popular Hindi movie channel, is pinning its hopes on the hype surrounding Shivaji. Its business head, Ashutosh, confirmed the same in a recent interview

Meanwhile back home Rajini met up with director Shankar applauding him for the excellent work that he did in Shivaji. The movie has had a massive release with more than 1000 prints worldwide. He was away in Canada on vacation while the film was released. Rajini called on him and showed him gratitude for such an excellent job.

Also read... Trisha's gorgeous male and female Namitha loses 10 kgs Prabhudeva wants to be hero More

Articles by the same author Kamal goes bald, will kiss on screen Reema Sen with Karthi Meera Jasmine married for the sixth time