Rajnikanth’s Sivaji cracks UK top 10

Sivaji: The Boss has become the first-ever Tamil movie to find a place in the UK Top 10, reports GC Shekhar.

After India, South East Asia and the US, Rajnikanth magic has hit London. The superstar’s latest mega hit Sivaji: The Boss has become the first-ever Tamil movie to find a place in the UK Top 10 — at No. 9.

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The film collected £167,607 (Rs 1.36 crore) in its opening weekend across 12 screens, making it one of the best openings for an Indian film in the UK. By averaging £1,967 per screen, Rajnikanth’s 100th Tamil film has surpassed the collections of not only Hollywood titles like Fantastic Four and Ocean’s 13, but also Indian ones like Jhoom Barabar Jhoom in the opening weekend.

K Karunamoorthy of Ayngaran International, distributor for Sivaji in the UK, said the Rajnikanth-Sankar (the director) combination has opened up a new market for Tamil films. “The next big Tamil hit could be Kamal Haasan’s Dasavatharam.”

In Chennai, the estimated Rs 50-crore Sivaji continued to blaze the box office, with a collection of Rs 1.3 crore in four days across 17 screens — another record. “More than 2.7 lakh people watched the movie during this period, a record here,” said Adirami Ramanthan, distributor of the film in Chennai.

In Mayajaal multiplex, located outside Chennai, all 78 shows during the first weekend were housefull. The multiplex screens the film 21 times a day across six screens and the weekends have been blocked by corporates — especially BPOs and software firms.