Mani Ratnam's Kaatru Veliyidai crashes at the box office

Mani Ratnam’s Kaatru Veliyidai had an excellent opening at the Tamil Nadu box office, thanks to the pre-release buzz in the urban centres. But right from the first day, mixed review and general audiences expressed their disappointment about the lack of the usual Mani Ratnam magic.

“The first three days box office gross in Tamil Nadu is Rs 11 crore, an excellent opening for a Karthi film. But on Monday, Kaatru Veliyidai saw a 70% drop in A centres, which is not a good sign. The film also failed to attract the audience in B and C Centres-the non-Mani Ratnam territory,” said a source in the trade.

Trade sources from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana say that Cheliyaa, the dubbed version of Kaatru Veliyidai, has been declared as a huge flop. Even the much expected US market didn’t help Kaatru Veliyidai, the film only grossed $ 272k {Rs 1 crore and a half (approx)} from the Thursday premiere and regular Friday and Saturday shows.

Meanwhile, after facing heavy criticisms on the contrived scene of the film’s hero Karthi escaping from the Pakistan prison, the makers have released a statement saying that the incident was inspired by Dilip Parulkar’s real-life encounter in 1971.

But in the film, Mani Ratnam had mentioned the time period as late 90’s and by the time, security forces were well equipped and it’s not a cake walk to cross Pakistan border.