Ponniyin Selvan I sees advance booking of ₹1 crore in just few hours in India, crosses $400k in US

The advance booking collections of Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan: I crossed the ₹1 crore mark within hours on Sunday, having crossed the $400k mark in the US earlier.

Mani Ratnam’s Ponniyin Selvan: I is less than a week away from release now. Advance booking for the film’s Tamil and telugu versions opened on Sunday and within hours, the craze for the film began to show. Many shows reported near houseful sales by Sunday afternoon itself and sources said the film had crossed ₹1 crore in advance booking in a few hours itself. 

Ponniyin Selvan: I is the first of a two-part historical epic based on Kalki’s novel of the same name. The historical fiction is one of the most heavily-anticipated films of the year, mounted on a massive budget, and filled with big stars. Trade sources say that the gross collection from advance bookings in both languages crossed The ₹1-crore mark before noon on Sunday itself. Judging by that, the film could be looking at a massive opening weekend, at least for the Tamil version.

According to industry tracker Sacnilk, the film had sold 78,000 tickets by noon, grossing ₹1.46 crore. Of this, ₹1.37 crore came from the Tamil version alone, and around ₹9 lakh from the Telugu-dubbed version. The figure will most certainly breach the ₹10-crore mark before Friday, and can go much higher if the hype continues.

Ponniyin Selvan, which stars Vikram, Karthi, Jayam Ravi, Aishwarya Rai, and Trisha Krishnan, is being released in five languages, which include Hindi, Kannada, and Malayalam as well. The advance booking for these language versions is set to open later this week, most likely by Wednesday. However, trade sources say that the buzz for the Hindi version isn’t as high and the film should the bulk of its business down south, chiefly in Tamil Nadu.