Baahubali 2 to earn Rs100 crore a day? Trade experts make predictions

SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali: The Conclusion is a film that is eagerly awaited by fans all over India. Though a Tamil-Telugu bilingual, the film has generated a lot of interest in other parts of the country as well, thanks to the enormous appeal and cliffhanger ending of Baahubali: The Beginning (2015), which left filmgoers desperate to know why Katappa killed Baahubali.

Talking to Cinestaan.com about the buzz generated by the film, trade analyst Atul Mohan said the film does not need any promotions. “Baahubali 2 is a once-in-a-lifetime movie," he said. "We saw how much the first part earned, not only in India but also worldwide. In short, a film like Baahubali doesn’t need any promotion. Just announcing the release date is enough."

But owing to the magnitude of the project and the response to the first film, the Prabhas- and Rana Daggubati-starrer has also become the most expensive film made so far in India. The overall budget of both films combined is around Rs400 crore. This was revealed by one of the film’s producers, Sobhu Yarlagadda, during the trailer launch.

When you have such a colossal budget, it is vital for the film to earn a bomb at the box office.

"The budget of both films combined is around Rs400 crore — Rs150 crore for the first film and around Rs250 crore for the second. They might not have made that much of a profit [from the first film]. Some portions of the second were shot then [when the first film was released]," Mohan said.

Mohan believes Baahubali: The Conclusion will make up for that. "The second film will give them a huge profit," he said. "Many brands are also associating with the film, so they will get money from them, too. On 28 April, most cinemas will play their film. No other film — Hindi, Hollywood, Telugu, Tamil or Kannada — is being released that day. This is also a record of sorts that a solo movie is releasing in today’s times. Normally, at least some small film is released along with a big film. All theatres are also keen to play this film due to its successful brand."

The first film reportedly made Rs586 crore worldwide. Trade expert Pranav Adarsh believes the nett distributor share for the second film will outdo that of the first. "The first film had a distributors’ share of Rs302 crore. The second is expected to earn around of Rs 320 crore for the distributors. It is likely that it will make substantial profits."

But what if the film doesn’t turn out to be as good as expected? Mohan believes it will still score big. "It will, and nobody should be surprised if the advance booking of the film turns out to be 100% for the first seven days, especially in the South. We saw huge queues for the advance booking at the time of release of the first film. The same will happen with the second part. Online tickets sites might crash.”

Adarsh echoed a similar sentiment. He does not believe that bad word-of-mouth will affect the film’s chances. “Bad word-of-mouth may hamper the collections, but there is no stopping this one from being a juggernaut success," he said. 

In fact, Mohan predicts that this will be the first Indian film to cross Rs100 crore in one day worldwide. “It will be normal for the film to earn Rs100 crore a day. After all, the film will be released in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam and other languages. The total of all of them per day will reach Rs100 crore. So, the first weekend should earn them Rs300 crore. The release is no less than a festival."

Elaborating, he said, "The Day 1 collection for the first part worldwide was around Rs70 crore. The South version earned around Rs60 crore, Hindi was Rs5 crore, which is a record in itself [for a dubbed South Indian film] and it got around Rs20 crore overseas. The second film is releasing on a much bigger scale, there is more anticipation, and ticket prices will be increased." 

Going by the views of these two experts, it seems the Indian, and not just the South Indian, box office is all set to witness an overflow of moolah. The Hindi market has been dull in 2017. It looks like Baahubali may rescue it. All eyes are now set on 28 April.