Only behind two Hindi films in revenues collected this year.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Telugu film Attarintiki Daaredi (“What is the way to mother-in-law’s house?”) has created waves in the US by smashing Telugu box office records in its opening weekend, and is only behind two Hindi films in revenues collected overall at the US box office by a film from India this year.
The film, released on Friday September 27th, grossed roughly $924,000 in just its first two days. Worldwide, it is expected to surpass Rs. 30 crore worth of collections by the end of this week, an astronomical sum for a non-Bollywood Indian film.
As of its current standing, it is the third highest-grossing Indian film of the year in the US, trailing only Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and Chennai Express – two Bollywood blockbusters that went on to become the fourth-highest and all-time highest grossing Indian films, respectively.
The most remarkable part of all this is that just last week, Attarintiki Daaredi’s financial prospects looked very dim. An editorial assistant working on the film stole about 90 minutes of the finished movie and leaked it online. The footage was uploaded onto YouTube, where other pirates downloaded the content, burned it onto discs, and sold them on the streets for as little as 50 rupees (less than $1).
A police investigation led to the arrest of the editorial assistant – identified as Arun Kumar – and the confiscation of hundreds of pirated discs. But as a result of the leak, the film’s release had to be moved up at the last minute from its original release date of October 9th to September 27th.
A similar situation happened with the 2009 film X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In that scenario, someone working at one of the companies responsible for the film’s visual effects distributed a pirated copy of the film online. Although the copy was not of the completely finished film – there were several visual effects and other minor things that had not yet been completed – the film was downloaded an estimated 4.5 million times. The film, however, still went on to gross over $373 million worldwide, despite the leaking of the entire movie weeks in advance as well as mediocre reviews.
Attarintiki Daaredi is directed by Trivikam Srinivas, and stars Pawan Kalyan and Boman Irani (3 Idiots). An action-comedy, the film has received largely positive reviews from mainstream Indian news sources.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com