The poster of 'Enthiran', India's biggest box office hit. CHENNAI: What would you think of a film that had a storyline that was earlier rejected by several quarters; a film that was struck by economic recession soon after the shooting began; a film that changed producers because of want of funds; and a film that took three years to be completed?
It had all the hallmarks of a box office disaster waiting to happen. But here’s the twist. This jinxed project turned into a blitzkrieg and changed the face of the Indian film industry, as far as sci-fi filmmaking is concerned. That’s the story of ‘Enthiran’.
The numbers say it all: The Rs 200-crore Rajni-Aishwarya starrer, the costliest Indian film ever made, reaped over Rs 300 crore within a fortnight of its release.
It was simultaneously released in the highest number of theatres, a whopping 3,000 screens. In Chennai, ‘Enthiran’ opened to over 200 shows a day.
Casting legends in the film industry - from Rajnikanth to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and AR Rahman — ‘Enthiran’ was meant to display the might of both the actors and the production house, Sun Pictures, who entered film production through it.
In another first, a reported Rs 60 crore was devoted entirely to promote this technically path-breaking film. It helped make the film Indian cinema’s highest grosser. The release of nearly a dozen Tamil films was put off or advanced so as not to compete with the magnum opus.
Rajni never likes promoting his flicks, perhaps one reason why he continues to be an enigma to fans. ‘Enthiran’ changed that for good as he did not miss any opportunity — from the small screen to radio stations — to offer promotional interviews ahead of the release. Rajni shared the spotlight at all occasions with producer Kalanithi Maran.
In an industry where the superstar was seen as bigger than the product itself, ‘Enthiran’ charted a new course. And these efforts more than paid off. ‘Enthiran’ scripted success not only in Tamil, where the superstar reigns supreme, but in Bollywood as well. It beat Aamir Khan’s ‘3 Idiots’ hands down at the box office.
Apart from raising the bar for Tamil films in terms of technical brilliance, ‘Enthiran’ has just crossed another milestone: it was included as a case study for film success in the curriculum of the best B-school in India — IIM Ahmadabad.
Better distribution network
“‘Enthiran’ came as the savior for theatre owners, who had seen only one hit film so far this year in the State, ‘Singam’. ‘Enthiran’ was distributed in such a way that theatre owners did not lose money. We, the theatre owners, are going to convene a meeting in early January to discuss how films next year can be released with similar mechanisms. By regulating the release of films in the future, we want to ensure that screening films remains a profitable venture,” says Sridhar, joint secretary, Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners Association.
- Indian Express
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