Rajini's Pro Muslim Lal Salaam gets North release - Will it break Sanghi image ?

At the time of writing, we hear that Lal Salaam of Rajinikanth will get released in North India. The buzz was that the film was heavily pro Muslim in content and so the Hindi print is not to come in North India where after Ayodhya there is a Ram wave. The film is not the RSS cup of tea. Friends who are abroad and got to see say that with Lal Salaam ,Rajinikanth wipes out his pro Hinduvata tag given to him by his detractors. In Lal Salaam Rajin’s; s role is of a 100% secular Muslim and with a runtime of 60 minutes. The role sort of exposes the Right-wing elements who spark communal flame and the minority community being the target. This screen image will convey the message that Rajinikanth as a person cannot be put in a straitjacket of a Hinduvata. His going to Ayodhya to the pranamam at feet of Yogi will in all likely hood the Sanghi brand be wiped out.name. On watching the film, my friends say that at no point it shows Muslims as communalists. Cinematographer Vishnu who has taken the subject from a real-life incident in his hometown when a Hindu Temple chariot was burned in a clash is said to have done a good job. The rawness of lyricist Mashooka Rahman in the song Jallalali is excellent. A R Rahman score has before the release did not create any buzz but the song rendered by Deva and released yesterday has done wonders in terms of views. We are told that Vishnu Vishal and Vikranth who are real life cricketeers has done an excellent job. Theatre list in overseas is excellent says trade. What the overseas friends fear is that out of 2 hours 31 minutes, Rajini comes 90 minutes in second half only. Will this be a damper for Rajini fans in India ? Lyca has not sold it like a Rajini film and so there is no reason for trade to worry. How well will the Moideen Bhai preaching communal harmony get accepted by an audience that by and large sees him as a pro Modi man ? It can also be taken as Actor Rajini as Moideen in Lal Salaam and mothing more and if the communal harmony scenes are preachy or filmy, it could be a good subject for memes and trolls. Lets wait.

Brand Rajinikanth a hit or flop abroad ?

Brand Rajini no doubt in Tamil Nadu has worked big but lost steam in Andhra and TS. Has this brand worked abroad and made Annaatthe  a hit abroad or is it a flop ?. Qube Cinema that replaced traditional overseas distributors of Tamil- Telugu films with Annaatthe in its official twitter handle claims that first day collections was USD $1.5 M across 1125 theaters overseas and the figures are excluding UK and Europe. As far as Europe goes, France and Germany distributors posts show that there is a big box office explosion happening in their theaters. Qube has got 500 screens in USA and it tweets that Regal Palmetto Grande stadium 16 movie hall has been added due to public demand.  In North America it says that  it crossed the $ 400k mark even before the first show. France guy posts + 4000 admissions on Day I.

In Sri Lanka and UAE, it is being released on 86 and 117 screens respectively, the film is also being released in Singapore, Malaysia, & the U.K with 23, 110 & 35 screen counts.

A  source close to Tamil- Telugu films overseas trade gives a different picture. He says that the film's overseas collections is the lowest compared to the last five films of Rajinikanth. The two day collections overseas is Rs 23 crores. Though the pre release sales was very high in USA, negative reports tanked the movie and on Friday it was only $83K ( Rs 6157882.05) from 230 locations. The pre-sales was just on Brand Rajini and after the first show the film's content quality took over and sales dipped. The reason given is that family melodramas do not work with US audience.

Enemy's fate has been miserable. The source said that the condition in US is much better than in other countries as the audience are willing to come to theaters and the only thing that works big is a film that has a good talk that spreads after the FDFS. The negative reviews and literally Annaatthe trashing has affected the weekend crowds mindset.