Decoding Pushpa 2 box office success: How Sukumar perfected the formula to help Allu Arjun beat SS Rajamouli, Shah Rukh

Pushpa 2: The Rule has become the third-highest-grossing Indian film ever in just 13 days. It is now closing on the ₹1500-crore mark.

There is a scene in Pushpa 2: The Rule, among the many massy sequences, where Allu Arjun's Pushpa Raj defies all known rules of gravity to beat dozens of henchmen with his hands tied behind his back. The fight sequence is an extension of the mass brand of cinema that Rajinikanth, Chiranjeevi, Salman Khan, and Vijay have firmly made their own over the last couple of decades. Even Shah Rukh Khan joined in on the fun last year.

Allu Arjun plays a red sanders smuggler called Pushpa Raj in Pushpa 2: The Rule.

With Pushpa 2, Allu Arjun and Sukumar took it a notch higher. The box office receipts are proof of it. Pushpa 2, however mindless it may be, is the culmination of a perfect mass formula designed to simply entertain. (

Pushpa 2's fine-tuning of the Baahubali template

There is a template to Pushpa 2's success, which we saw in Baahubali and KGF earlier. The first film sets the base with pan-India success, introducing the world and the star to the Hindi audiences. Then, the second film breaks the bank with all-time record collections. The difference with the Sukumar film was that unlike the other two, Pushpa: The Rise was not a blockbuster in its native region. The Telugu version was a mere 'hit' while the Hindi dub became a blockbuster. Hence, Pushpa 2's success was always dependent on how the Hindi version did.

As this piece is being written, Pushpa 2: The Rule has earned ₹953 crore net in India, of which ₹591 crore has come from the Hindi version alone. The Hindi dub of Pushpa 2 has beaten Rajamouli's Baahubali 2 - the OG pan-India blockbuster - and Shah Rukh Khan's Pathaan. It is en route to surpass Jawan as well soon and will soon be the highest-grossing 'Hindi' film of all time. That is true pan-India success. Beating Bollywood's biggest superstar and India's most bankable filmmaker in the Hindi market is no mean feat. Doing all this in under two weeks boggles the mind.

Allu Arjun, Rashmika Mandanna and Fahadh Faasil's stills from Pushpa: The Rise.

How Sukumar perfected the formula

Yes, Allu Arjun and his stardom deserve a lot of credit for the film's success. Droves of youngsters in the Hindi belt came to the theatres to watch Pushpa. But the man behind the monitor - director Sukumar - deserves praise, too. It's easy to dismiss Pushpa 2's success as the work of a formula. But it's stupid, too. Every year, dozens of filmmakers attempt this formula. But as Adipurush, Vikrant Rona, and Kanguva will tell you, most fall flat despite having the biggest of the stars. Pushpa 2 succeeded because Sukumar ensured that the formula is backed by proper ingredients - a story that appeals to the target audience, characters that are colourful, and a hero they can relate to. Rocky Bhai was aspirational, Baahubali was an icon, but Pushpa is one of them, and they are their own. And in rooting Pushpa to the ground, Sukumar ensured the film would fly.

The promotions, which included a trailer launch in Patna of all places, firmly established Pushpa 2's aspirations of being a Hindi-belt movie first. In the first 13 days, Pushpa 2 has earned more in UP and Bihar than in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, which shows the success of this strategy. Unlike Baahubali or RRR, which were Telugu films that also did well up north, Pushpa is very much driven by its Hindi juggernaut.

A calculated risk that paid off

The only blemish on Pushpa 2's stellar record has been its underwhelming collection in Kerala. The Malayalam version of the film has netted just ₹14 crore, as opposed to ₹50 crore by the Tamil version. Many are surprised at this, given that Fahadh Faasil, one of the biggest Malayalam stars today, is the antagonist there. But perhaps that is the exact reason. Many have noted that Fahadh's Shekhawat has been reduced to a weak villain in the film, which could have affected the performance in Kerala.

But to me, that is a calculated move from the producers and Sukumar. The film is Pushpa 2, not Pushpa vs Shekhawat. It was never about a showdown of equals like a Master or even Vikram. Here, the focus must always be on the unbent, unbowed embodiment of 'Thaggede la' that is Pushpa Raj. Had Sukumar's script elevated Shekhawat, it could have helped the film's collections in Kerala somewhat. But that could have also resulted in Pushpa appearing not as grand, and Sukumar knew that was not what would work for his film.

In the end, the ringing cash registers are proof of the strategy working. It is one thing to envision a pan-India blockbuster but another to deliver it. Sukumar managed it in a manner where his film is outdoing even the work of SS Rajamouli and the stardom of Shah Rukh Khan at the box office. As its second week ends, Pushpa 2 is inching closer to ₹1500 crore (insert mind-blown emoji here). And people are already thinking of the unthinkable - can it beat Baahubali 2 and Dangal? It may not but just the fact that it has even sparked that question speaks volumes of Pushpa 2's impact.