Theatre-owners and distributors in Tamil Nadu might consider Rajnikanth a benevolent Baba for returning every paisa of the losses they incurred with his latest movie, but as far as the actor’s fans go, ‘‘Baba is a blacksheep’’.The distribution rights of Baba are estimated to have been the highest ever in the history of Indian cinema. But the box-office returns, exhibitors say, though into crores, have not made up for the money shelled out on the rights. A fan speaks: Three reasons why Baba flopped S. Sridhar, member of the Rajinikant Fan Association, has never missed a first-day-first-show of his idol, hated Baba so much he watched it ‘‘only twice’’, on why he thinks his superstar was a superflop: a) This film is directed by Suresh Krissna who also writes the screenplay. This time, Rajni wrote the dialogues, allowing Krissna to only direct. Big mistake. The lines are terrible (sample this: ‘Even if I am late, I am the latest’). b) In every Rajni movie, the first song is a superhit. This time all we saw was a half-hearted Dippu Dippu. c) Rajni’s strength is in his repeat audience. This time the tickets were priced at Rs 100. Usually they go up to Rs 50. Rajni’s fans are mostly from the lower-class, they watch his movie 10-12 times. How can he expect them to pay Rs 1,200? Because of the price, the middle-class saw his film and gave bad reviews. (ENS) So at a press meet on Friday, though none of the distributors and theatre-owners present were willing to divulge the amount Rajnikanth had got before the film’s release or how much he actually returned — saying only ‘‘He got crores and returned crores’’ — they couldn’t stop praising the superstar. ‘‘This is the first time an actor has chosen to pay back the losses incurred by the distributors and exhibitors in the history of cinema, be it at the state, national or international level,’’ Thiruppur Subramanian, the distributor of Coimbatore, proclaimed. He added that actors like MGR and Raj Kapoor have helped distributors in the past by making another movie after a flop. ‘‘But no one has ever given back the entire amount,’’ he said.Distributors for Baba, G. Venkateswaran, Francis (Tiruchi), Suresh (North and South Arcot), and close associates, chorus: ‘‘Rajni has been helping thousands, especially rural children. But he never wants publicity. Even now, he was against us going to the media. But it’s our duty to tell the people the truth,’’ they add.But Tamil actor Yuhi Sethu says: ‘‘I don’t think Rajni is the first person to return the money.’’ He remembers Mani Ratnam doing the same for Iruvar (starring Aishwarya Rai).The distributor for the Madurai area, Nagarajan Raja, says Rajni wanted to reveal ‘Babaji’ to the world. ‘‘He is satisfied with it. Even at the time of making the film he had told me that if the film failed he would return the money. Rajni had sleepless nights till we finalised the settlement on Thursday,’’ he adds.Sethu, who says he is a fan of Rajnikanth and has been branded Chinna Thiraiyin Vellai Rajni (Small screen’s fair Rajni), adds: ‘‘Rajni has said that he has kept all the distributors’ money intact and is returning every bit of it. This probably means even he knew the movie would sink.’’One of the theatre-owners says: ‘‘This is a Deepavali bonus for us. For over a decade and more, Rajni’s films have never failed at the box-office. Even Baba’s collections are good. In fact they are better than his previous movie Padayappa in the short-term.’’ As for future plans, there are rumours that Rajni’s next film will be titled Surappa or Dada., will be directed by Shankar and released before Pongal. But most fans don’t think so. Neither does Sethu, who says: ‘‘The fans may not accept it. Baba took three years to release. He is not going to try anything in three months.’’According to Sethu, the reason Baba didn’t click was that ‘‘people don’t want divinity from Rajni. In his previous film Padayappa, which was a superhit, Rajni puts his hand into a snake-hole and pulls a snake out. His fans were willing to accept that, but not Baba. Rajni portrayed himself as a demigod and crossed the line.’’However, Sethu adds: ‘Rajni has nothing to worry about. He can still command his price for the next film.’’
