Rama Krishna Sangem
Superstar Mahesh Babu’s Sarkari Vaari Pata or SVP, has crossed the Rs 100 crore mark within four days of its release and is sure to gross around Rs 200 crore, when its theatrical run ends and OTT deals begin. Released on May 12, Thursday, the movie collected Rs 106 crore (with a share of Rs 6o crore) by May 16, Monday and is expected to run for another couple of weeks.
Mahesh, one of the makers of the movie, commands a remuneration of Rs 50 crore. Mahesh Babu deserves it. His recent comments which triggered controversy in Bollywood couldn’t dent the success of SVP. His well crafted marketing strategy, where he single handed promoted the movie have worked wonders. His fans craving a blockbuster can relax.
The fact is that Mahesh could bring around 40 lakh audience (including repeat viewers) to theaters and collect Rs 106 crore in four days.
A major factor behind the runway success of this 160 minute movie is Brand Mahesh, with a huge fan following and family audience from all walks of life, in both Telugu states and abroad. The tile of the movie, SVP is little outdated, as it is related to open auctions of properties of bank loan defaulters. SVP means, official bid of the banker or lender. These days, most auctions are held online. Still, Mahesh fans owned it up and rushed to theaters.
Mahesh can now relax as his brand value is intact, in spite of a 2 year gap of his films due to pandemic. The film should have been released a year ago, but postponed due to Covid waves. Mahesh was taken aback after not so well performing movies like “1: Nenokkade” (2014) of Sukumar or “Spyder”(2017) of AR Murugudoss as they failed to attract his fans. Since then, he started course correction. Now dropped the Prince tag to his name.
“Sarileru Neekevvaru” (2020) film, directed by Anil Ravipudi too hasn’t satisfied Mahesh’s fans, in terms of collections or action sequences. Mahesh is not only a director’s actor, but also a producer’s hero. He knows the importance of pulling off a movie to blockbuster. He knows a lot of business happens over his image. He involves himself at every stage of film making – right from the story line to final print.
SVP’s story is simple. The hero Mahesh brings awareness among ordinary people and makes them put pressure on VIP defaulters of big bank loans, mostly from the public sector ones. Director Parasuram added enough lighthearted romance in the first half- between the hero and heroine, Keerthy Suresh. How a bad girl heroine turns a good girl by the climax is hilarious.
Mahesh added a lot of comedy to his role, while retaining his action hero image. Women film critics may find it objectionable to scenes like Mahesh slapping Keerthy and lifting his leg in air to kick her, when she refuses to repay his loan. But these are all common in Telugu movies where heroines are insulted or slapped to lift up the macho image of heroes.
Villain Samudrakhai is a big shot Rajya Sabha member from Vizag. He defaults on thousands of crore loans to banks and as a result an honest bank officer, Nadiya, goes to jail. Remember Vijay Mallya etc? Hero, a money lender in the US comes to India to recover a 10,000 dollars hand loan he gave to the heroine, from her father, Samudrakhani. Of course, there are some directional errors in SVP, but Mahesh fans don’t care for them.
Thaman’s music is a major factor for SVP’s super hit. Madhy’s camer and Venkatesh Marthad’s editing are decent. The movie makers – three big production houses – Mythri Movies, 14 Reels and G Mahesh Babu Entertainment – will surely be richer by some crores soon, after paying all dues and taxes. The happiness is evident on their faces at the film’s success meet at Kurnool on May 16, Monday.
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