Hyderabad: Film director Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan 1's release on September 30, 2022, proved to be a box office disruptor. The film became the highest-grossing Tamil movie of 2022, with a global gross collection of over Rs 500 crore, even though the original Tamil version outperformed its other regional competitors. Now, as the sequel to the movie Ponniyin Selvan 2 (PS2) prepares to hit theatres this Friday, all eyes will be on how well it performs on its home turf and across all five languages.
Ponniyin Selvan is a cinematic adaptation of author Kalki Krishnamurthy's novel in the 1950s. The movie stars Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Vikram, Jayam Ravi, Trisha Krishnan, Karthi, Sobhita Dhulipala, and Aishwarya Lekshmi. Movie lovers in Tamil Nadu are already anticipating the sequel as it returns to complete the story of The Chola Empire.
While Ponniyin Selvan 1 was unquestionably successful in the Tamil market, its result at the nearby Telangana and Andhra Pradesh box offices was somewhat different. Despite having well-known actors like Trisha, Jayam, and Karthi in the cast, PS1 only made a gross of Rs 14.97 crores in the Telugu version. It grossed Rs 7.44 crores at the Malayalam box office. According to Venkat Prasad, a programming manager of Prasad's multiplex chain in Hyderabad, the advance booking in the Telugu market for the opening day is better for PS2 in Telugu than PS2 in Tamil.
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"In comparison, the opening day collection has increased by more than 50 percent. The first part performed well in Tamil but did not do well in Telugu. However, Telugu is far more popular than Tamil when compared to advance reservations. Telugu has more advance booking, even though there is just a 10 percent difference between Tamil and Telugu," said trade analyst Ramesh Bala in conversation with a webloid.
