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Journalism of Courage
From three 18-year-old polytechnic students who have waited for “two months” to a group of three wedding car decorators and a 52-year-old cloth salesman seeking manoranjan – at 11 am on Thursday, December 5, Chandra Talkies, a single-screen theatre in Muzaffarnagar town, is teeming with people who have come to watch Pushpa 2 (The Rule), the Hindi dubbed version of the Telugu “pan-Indian film” starring Allu Arjun.
Minutes later, the film rolls and as Arjun makes an entry – in slow motion, of course – the 360-seater hall is filled with whoops of delight, shrill whistles and screams of “o teri”.
With the success of S S Rajamouli’s Bahubali (Part 1 and 2), Telugu films that grossed an estimated Rs 250 crore in the Hindi-speaking markets, and K G F (Part 1 and 2), Kannada films whose Hindi dubs made over Rs 500 crore, high-octane, masala tentpole films from the South have found a market in the North, particularly in the heartland states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. It’s a geography that Bollywood, which has over the years moved away from films catering to the masses and which has been unable to create a new crop of superstars, has long vacated.
Pushpa 2, which has been dubbed into Hindi and five other languages, is eyeing just this space. Last month, the filmmakers even launched the trailer in Patna – an unusual market for a Telugu film – where an estimated two lakh people cheered as Arjun addressed them and asked them to forgive him for his “thoda galat” Hindi.
Producer and film business expert Girish Johar says, “With 12,000 screens across the world, Pushpa 2 is the widest theatrical release for any Indian film.” Of these, an estimated 1,000 screens are in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.
Pushpa 2’s strategy to focus on its North Indian market comes after the success it had with Pushpa 1 (The Rise). When it was released in December 2021, the film was expected to run into a big release – the Ranveer Singh-starrer 83, a film on the 1983 Indian World Cup winning cricket team – outside of its core Telugu market in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. But surprisingly, the film more than held its own. According to figures by Bollywood film trade analyst Taran Adarsh, the movie made Rs 26.89 crore from its first week of theatrical run in North India.
So when it came to the sequel, it was expected to be a sure-shot bet, especially for single screens like Muzaffarnagar’s Chandra Talkies, where tickets are priced between Rs 100 and Rs 150.
Ahead of the release on Thursday, the theatre saw online bookings for 123 of its 360 seats — a “rare, good sign”, says theatre manager Mirza Asif Hussain, 34.
Chandra Talkies theatre owner Sanjay Ghai, who owns five screens in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, says he is hoping to earn Rs 50 lakh during the theatrical run of the movie over the next three weeks.
In the darkness of the movie hall, all that matters is the hero. Arjun fills up the screen as Pushpa, a labourer from Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh who goes on to become the head of a sandalwood smuggling syndicate, plays cat and mouse with a brash IPS officer and takes on corrupt politicians.
At the slightest hint of a song, many in the audience break into a dance and some pull out their phones to make reels as they sing along. At the end of the three-hour extravaganza, Kalram, a daily-wage labourer, says he was impressed by Pushpa’s courage. “The best part about him is, kisi ki saamne jukhna nahi hai (should not bow down to anyone)”.
Salim, a 27-year-old mason, says he likes “maar-dhaad” and “pyaar-mohabbat” in his movies. “This film has both,” he says. “South films are simple… There are no galat (wrong) scenes. You can watch it with a family.”
Owais, who works in a hospital, and “usually watches movies with his girlfriend”, was particularly impressed with the “fight scene at the end when Pushpa’s hands and legs are tied.” “Woh sabse khatarnak tha (That was the best part)”.
Hussain, who has managed the theatre for 10 years, says the reason for the success of some of these films from the South is that they are linked to the “zameen (land)”. “When people come to the movies and pay for the ticket, they come for something. Movies like this are for a mass audience. Some Bollywood films just do not relate to the audience… Pushpa 2, for instance, does not have a single English dialogue”
