Baahubali 2 scores a bull’s- eye

AN EPIC battle movie from one of India’s lesser-known film industries has trumped Bollywood by becoming the country’s highest-grossing film to date, an industry analyst said on Monday.

Baahubali 2: The Conclusion ( below), the final instalment of a two-part fantasy adventure, has made more than 1,000 crore or 10 billion rupees (RM674.4 million) worldwide since hitting screens on April 28, according to experts.

The South Indian film, which is laden with special effects, has surpassed Aamir Khan’s 2014 Bollywood blockbuster PK, which made around US$120 million (RM519 million), as India’s biggest-grossing movie yet, Indian film trade analyst Ramesh Bala told AFP.

Bollywoodhungama.com, which tracks India’s movie industry, also reported that Baahubali 2 had become the highest-grossing Indian film worldwide in history.

Baahubali, meaning ‘The One with Strong Arms’, tells the story of two warring brothers battling for control of a fictional Indian kingdom. Its elaborate scenes have seen it compared to hit American movie 300.

The S.S. Rajamouli-directed film features elaborate fight sequences and computer graphics such as rampaging elephants and a bull stampede.

It was shot in the Telugu and Tamil languages of southern India – whose film industries, known as Tollywood and Kollywood respectively – are often overshadowed by the Hindi-speaking Bollywood.

The movie was dubbed into Hindi and other regional Indian languages and has sparked a wave of Baahubali mania across the country as fans flock to cinemas to find out how the series ends after the first film finished in a cliffhanger.

Baahubali: The Beginning made around US$100 million (RM432.6 million) in worldwide ticket sales when it was released in 2015, according to industry estimates.

The combined cost of making the two movies was about US$70 million (RM302.8 million), according to estimates, well below the budgets for major Hollywood films. – AFPRelaxnews