No matter if some George Clooney fans shrug and roll their eyes, Ajith Kumar, cloning Clooney's salt 'n pepper hairstyle, has hit the box office again. The collections his Diwali flick, Aarambam ( 'beginning', in Tamil) logged is said to be a record for both an opening day and week for any Tamil movie.
Made with a budget ofRs.60 crores, the Vishnuvardhan directed film reportedly raked inRs.9.5 crores on the opening day, going on to make more than Rs.30 crore the same opening week.
Industry insiders say Ajith is one of the few southern stars who had always given strong opening day collections. " Though his last movies like Aegan, Mangaatha and Billa II did not exactly set the box office afire, Ajith still has the magic to pull even the smartphone-wielding crowd and the mall pilgrims to his flicks, at least in the first couple of days. And that is all we want" says a theater owner in Chennai.
So how did the movie quickly get the tag of a would-be member of the "Rs.100 crore vasool'' club ? One obvious source are the Ajith fan bloggers. But a big banner studio manager in Chennai, a cynic when it comes to box office figures, however has his doubts. "Look, the movie cost about Rs.60 crores and it has to first collect that much to just break even. We can talk about breaking vasool records of any kind only after that. You rope in sure-fire names like Director Vishnuvardhan and actors Arya, Nayanthara and Taapsee for an Ajith starrer and then get excited if it makes just over an extra Rs.10 crores in the first two weeks, after so much hype. Does it mean much ?"
In Aarambam, which is unabashedly inspired by movies like Swordfish and Die Hard 4, Ajith plays a runaway ex-cop using unlawful means to blackmail baddies into doing good with the help of a suitably swelte hacker (Arya). Ajith, who is quietly happy about all the buzz it has genrated, is now busy with his next, Veeram, directed by 'Siruthai' Siva. Tamannaa will be his pair in this movie, while Devi Sree Prasad scores the music.
Unlike this Diwali, at whijh Aarambam, has faced very tame competition (from Vishal's Paandiya Nadu and Karthi's All in All Azhaguraja), his Pongal release Veeram will have to rough it out with the mighty Vijay's much anticipated Jilla . Ajith is also working on an another movie with Goutham Vasudev Menon.
Made with a budget ofRs.60 crores, the Vishnuvardhan directed film reportedly raked inRs.9.5 crores on the opening day, going on to make more than Rs.30 crore the same opening week.
Industry insiders say Ajith is one of the few southern stars who had always given strong opening day collections. " Though his last movies like Aegan, Mangaatha and Billa II did not exactly set the box office afire, Ajith still has the magic to pull even the smartphone-wielding crowd and the mall pilgrims to his flicks, at least in the first couple of days. And that is all we want" says a theater owner in Chennai.
So how did the movie quickly get the tag of a would-be member of the "Rs.100 crore vasool'' club ? One obvious source are the Ajith fan bloggers. But a big banner studio manager in Chennai, a cynic when it comes to box office figures, however has his doubts. "Look, the movie cost about Rs.60 crores and it has to first collect that much to just break even. We can talk about breaking vasool records of any kind only after that. You rope in sure-fire names like Director Vishnuvardhan and actors Arya, Nayanthara and Taapsee for an Ajith starrer and then get excited if it makes just over an extra Rs.10 crores in the first two weeks, after so much hype. Does it mean much ?"
In Aarambam, which is unabashedly inspired by movies like Swordfish and Die Hard 4, Ajith plays a runaway ex-cop using unlawful means to blackmail baddies into doing good with the help of a suitably swelte hacker (Arya). Ajith, who is quietly happy about all the buzz it has genrated, is now busy with his next, Veeram, directed by 'Siruthai' Siva. Tamannaa will be his pair in this movie, while Devi Sree Prasad scores the music.
Unlike this Diwali, at whijh Aarambam, has faced very tame competition (from Vishal's Paandiya Nadu and Karthi's All in All Azhaguraja), his Pongal release Veeram will have to rough it out with the mighty Vijay's much anticipated Jilla . Ajith is also working on an another movie with Goutham Vasudev Menon.
