Here comes the mega budgeted film India has ever seen in terms of pre-release business as Prabhas’ Saaho becomes the third biggest film in terms of sales. So far, Rajnikanth’s 2PointO and Rajamouli’s Baahubali 2 are the Top two films in India that raked huge pre-release moolah. And Saaho joins the league now.
In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Saaho made a theatrical business of around 125 crores with Nizam fetching 40 crores, Ceeded 24 crores and balance from various districts like East and West (19 Cr), Vizag (15 Cr) and Guntur-Nellore (17 Cr) making up to a gargantuan total. And the likes of Karnataka (28 Cr), Tamilnadu (20 Cr) fetched huge prices, while Overseas rights of all languages sold for 42 crores to Phars Films, Dubai. That makes the films’ theatrical rights sold for 290 crores with all other regions included.
So, Saaho has to make nearly 300 crores ‘share’ from all the version and 290 crores at any cost, to make sure that all the distributors get their investment back. That is not a mammoth target if we have to keep the hype around the film’s content and the craze of Prabhas are to be looked upon.
Given that the digital streaming rights of South Indian versions made 40 crores, if we included the satellite rights and music included, surely the film made 500 crores business on the table much before the release. Earlier, we have 2PointO making 560 crores pre-release business, while Baahubali 2 stood at 510 crores.