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Allu Arjun becomes a rage in Hindi belts with Pushpa; Strong at box office despite an OTT premiere
Allu Arjun has become the second actor from the Telugu film industry, after Prabhas (Post Bahubali) to get accepted by the Hindi speaking audience. Read details
Allu Arjun is unstoppable as Pushpa and the Sukumar directorial is just refusing to slow down at the box-office. Despite a premiere on the digital world, Pushpa continues to draw footfalls at the cinema halls as the film clocked Rs 4.5 crore in it’s fifth weekend taking the total collections to Rs 88 crore. There was a jump in biz on Friday on occasion of Makar Sankrati in Gujarat, followed by another jump in collections on Sunday.
The fifth week of Pushpa should close at Rs 90 crore and the film will continue to be in the race of entering the Rs 100 crore club as long as the cinema halls are open in Maharashtra and Gujarat. There won’t be much of a competition in the coming few weeks and it’s this clear run that’s giving Pushpa the shot of entering the coveted 3-digit number. The only little competition that the film would fetch is from Ala Vaikunthapurramloo, which is yet another Allu Arjun film that releases in Hindi on January 26. Thank god for the success of Pushpa, if not for the film, a section of media and industry would have put the entire blame of the 83' failure on the Omicron scare. The fact that Pushpa is earning better than 83' on every single day since January 3 is a testimony of the fact that audience is stepping out to watch films in cinema halls, if the content is exciting enough. While 83' was made out to be an all time classic, the matter of fact is that the audience word of mouth for Pushpa was better than 83', which in turn has resulted in a good numbers. This doesn't mean, there is no appreciation for 83' - it's there, but limited to the four metros.
With Pushpa, Allu Arjun has become a rage in Hindi belts, and it’s the choices of films going forward that will help him scale new heights as far as stardom is concerned. The footfalls of Pushpa are a stamp of acceptance from the audience, and the collections aside, the social conversations too are a testimony of this notion. A glance at Instagram, and one would find ample reels around the dialogues and dance moves of Pushpa. A glance at meme pages in Facebook, and it’s difficult to not find a reference to Pushpa. The acceptance has gone much beyond just the theatrical run as one can see the acceptance also translates into a fanbase in the Hindi belts.
The Icon star has got things rolling in his favor in places like Gujarat, CI, Maharashtra, UP and Bihar, which is where the loyal cinema going audience rests as far as Hindi circuits are concerned. The fandom is bound to rise with Pushpa: The Rule, and going forward, every Allu Arjun film will release with a certain amount of business expectations in the Hindi belts. Going by the fanfare at present, Allu Arjun might prove to be a worthy competitor to the newer generation of actors, and with age on his side, if he makes the right choices, sky's the limit. Allu Arjun has become the second actor from the Telugu film industry, after Prabhas (Post Bahubali) to get accepted by the Hindi speaking audience.
The list is expected to grow further in the coming few months with the likes of Jr. NTR and Ram Charan also joining the list. However, one can’t say with utmost confidence if the initial response to them would be similar to Allu Arjun, as he is among the rare actors from any of the four industries down south, to have made it big in Bollywood without the pad up from Shankar or SS Rajamouli. While Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo is seeing a 3 year delayed release in Hindi, the box office collections of the family comedy will be an interesting case study. There’s already a chatter around the probable opening of the film on January 26. So well, let’s wait and watch!
