TAMIL

Vijay does a Rajnikanth!
THE Fazil-directed Kathalikke Mariyathai, starring Vijay and Shalini, seems to have swept the box-office. The film with its unusual storyline, of young lovers heeding to their elders’ advice, has maintained 100 per cent collections even in its third week. Produced by Sangili Murugan for around Rs 1.25 crore, it was sold outright for a meagre margin of Rs 50 lakhs. The distributors who got it at a modest price claim that their profit margins may equal that of a Rajnikanth-starrer. The film is a remake of the Malayalam record-breaker, Aniyathi Pravu. Its Hindi version with Akshaye Khanna in the lead is still under production.

Encouraged by the film’s bumper collections, distributors in the Chennai-Chengalpettu territories have decided to remove their ‘ceiling’ on Vijay films. All five Vijay-starrers released last year gave distributors very good profit margins, and hence they feel a Vijay-starrer is as good as a film featuring Rajnikanth or Kamal Haasan whwn it comes to guaranteed returns.

Another film doing well at the box-office is Poochoodava starring Abbas and Simran. The Ajit-Manthra starrer, Irratai Jaadai Vyasu, has had falling collections in the second week. Thadayam, the Vijaya Shanti-starrer, grossed around 60 per cent collections in its third week. The Nagarjuna-starrer, Annamacharya opened to a good response in Chennai, and in its second week, maintained around 80 per cent collections, which is considered good for a dubbed film.

Chachi 420, the Kamal Haasan-starrer released a week after its release in the North, has had a good opening, and its collections are improving by the day. The film seems to have a great deal of curiosity value, although Kamal Haasan has not deviated from his Tamil original, Avvai Shanmughi, which was a mega hit.

TELUGU

Suswagatham, starring Pavan Kalyan (Chiranjeevi’s kid brother), Devayani and Saadhika, drew encouraging initials last week in the absence of any competition. A love story involving a motherless youth brought up by his caring father (played by Raghuvaran) and a girl, who likes her computer more than anything else on earth, the film’s main draw has been its director Bheemaneni Srinivasa Rao, who delivered a winner with another romance, Subhakankshalu, earlier.

Among the previous week’s releases, Pelli Pandiri, (Jagapathi Babu-Raasi) carried its near 100-per cent collections into the second week in all the three major territories — Andhra, Nizam and Seeded. But the Rajendra Prasad-starrer, Navvulata dropped to below par from the promising run in the first week.

All films are facing a pre-Sankranti lull in collections. Sainikudu, an action film starring Sai Kumar, saw further erosion in the third week with collections falling below 50 per cent in many centres. Osi Naa Maradala (Suman-Soundarya) is running to poor collections.

Maa Nannaki Pelli directed by EV Satyanarayana and Editor Mohan’s Yemandi Pellichesukondi are doing a steady business with 40-50 per cent collections.