Manjummel Boys marks trend in the south
Baahubali, KGF, Kantara and RRR set a trend of audiences across India flocking to southern movies not minding the evident lipsyncing mismatches because of the dubbing. Now the Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu film industries are discovering they can achieve similar box office success right at home.
Makers of the Malayalam movie Manjummel Boys, which was released in February, didn’t dub it in any other language, but still found enough audiences in Kerala and Tamil Nadu to become the first film in the language to cross the Rs 200-crore mark.
Manjummel Boys, a low-budget thriller about a group of boys trying to rescue their friend from a cave in Kodaikanal, is now the highest-grossing movie produced by the Malayalam film industry, where breaching ₹40 crore makes for a major milestone.
The highest grossing Malayalam movie before this 2018, released last year and based on the floods that devastated Kerala a few years ago. It grossed over ₹175 crore in box office collections.
While the success of movies such as RRR and Baahubali widened the audience for southern movies, opportunities for similar success are few, making the achievements of Manjummel Boys and 2018 remarkable.
Tamil movie Lover, produced at a budget of ₹5 crore and not featuring any star, has found similar success, raking in ₹4 crore in the first week of its release. What is more impressive is that the collections have come from Tamil Nadu alone.
Malayalam star Mammootty’s horror thriller Bramayugam has grossed ₹85 crore. The movie was dubbed in Telugu, Tamil, and Kannada, but not in Hindi.
Another Malayalam film, Premalu, has fetched ₹76 crore since its release in early February, with no dubbed versions. And Telugu movie Tillu Square has earned nearly ₹80 crore. These are all small-budwas get films produced under ₹30 crore.
Southern language movies, unless featuring top stars such as Rajinikanth, are released in metro cities such as Mumbai and Delhi—if at all—in dubbed versions and are often screened at odd timings. Most of their business comes from their home or neighbouring states, limiting their earnings.
Southern filmmakers are now finding ways to draw in audiences at home without having to seek bigger markets, insisting that they won’t spread themselves thin given that their content and sensibilities are unique to a specific region.
“A lot of films that rely on niche subjects and smart storytelling instead of top stars and popular film-makers are relevant to audiences in their home market alone. The makers realize that the jokes, dialogues or nuances may not make the same impact when dubbed in another language,” said film producer Girish Johar.
To be sure, trade experts point out it is important to recognize whether a film merits a multi-lingual release.