Article Credits : Forbes.com
The trailer for Baahubali: The Conclusion has been viewed more than 85 million times since being posted on YouTube and Facebook on March 16, further raising expectations that SS Rajamouli’s historical fantasy/adventure will smash records for an Indian release in the U.S. and in South India.
Starring Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anuskha Shetty, Tamannaah, Nasser, Ramya Krishna and Sathya Raj, the sequel to the 2015 blockbuster Baahubali: The Beginning will roll out on more than 750 screens in North America on April 27 and the following day on 6,500 screens in India and in more than 30 other markets.
At the trailer launch Rajamouli confirmed he plans to continue the franchise without wanting to “kill a golden goose" and announced the original will be re-released in India one or two weeks before the sequel for the benefit of those who missed it. “ Unlike the first part, which was low on emotions and high on grandeur, the second part will have both factors in equal proportion," he said.
The North American distributor, Great India Films’ Sudhakar Reddy K M, who with his partner Soma paid a record $7 million-plus for the theatrical rights in all languages, predicts Baahubali 2 will gross $15 million. That would eclipse the record held by Nitesh Tiwari’s Dangal, the biopic starring Aamir Khan, Sakshi Tanwar, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra, which collected $12.3 million last year.
The first Baahubali fetched $9 million in North America from 750 locations. “We are always confident before buying,” said Sudhakar, who hopes to arrange a star tour in the second week of release but won’t see the film produced by Arka Mediaworks’ Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni until opening day, preferring to watch it with the public.
Great India Films stumped up a further $3 million in partnership with V-Celluloids for the rights to the Nellore, Prakasam and Guntur districts of Andhra Pradesh state in India.
Telugu360.com’s Chicago-based editor Krishna told that the trade expects the Telugu version alone to rake in $3 million- $4 million on April 27 and to finish with at least $10 million. If that’s on the money, the Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam versions could well elevate the North American tally to $15 million.
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