Tamil superstar Rajnikanth seems to be heaving a sigh of relief since he is now close to overtaking the collections of ‘Vikram’, starring his arch-rival Kamal Hassan’ in the state of Tamil Nadu. “Jailer has garnered Rs 120 crores gross in Tamil Nadu in four days and still counting. With August 15 being a closed holiday, the collections are going to shore up since advance bookings are in full swing and it has the stamina to stay for long,” says a Tamil film distributor.
He claims that Tamil cinema witnessed two biggest hits in recent times-Vikram and Ponniyin Selvan1- and revived the interest in Tamil films among distributors and producers. “Vikram grossed Rs 180 crores gross in Tamil Nadu state and set a new record of sorts. However, it was overtaken by Mani Ratnam’s magnum opus as it collected Rs 200 crores gross to stay ahead in collections history till date,” he adds.
Right now, Rajnikanth who has been among flops like ‘Darbar’ and ‘Annaathhe’ has returned with a bang. He even hinted about his comeback in the pre-release event of ‘Jailer’ in Chennai. “Usually, Rajini avoids pre-release events and attends only film-success events. This time, he changed his track and arrived for the pre-release event, and slammed his detractors who almost wrote him off. Probably, he was very confident about ‘Jailer’ and he came out all guns blazing at his rivals and eventually, he proved his crowd-pulling prowess by drawing unprecedented openings,” he adds.
Actually, ace actors Kamal Hassan and Rajinikanth have been professional rivals for over four decades and had been overtaking each other over the years with their hits. It is going to happen once again with 'Jailer'.
