MUMBAI: Telugu film Athidhi starring Mahesh Babu, which is co-produced by UTV Motion Pictures and Babu’s Krishna Productions Private, opened to record box-office collections across Andhra Pradesh.
The gross collections for the first week (eight days) is Rs 125 million (Rs 12.50 crores) in Andhra Pradesh. In just one week, the movie has equalled the total collections of Pokhiri (also starring Mahesh Babu), which is the Telugu film industry’s top grosser to date in over three weeks. The film will release in Mumbai, Pune and parts of Maharastra on 2 November.
Athidhi released worldwide on 18 October across 500 screens worldwide of which 352 screens are in Andhra Pradesh. Another innovation from the UTV stable was the trailer of the Telugu version of Jodhaa Akbar starring Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar, the forthcoming film from UTVMP, which was played across 352 screens in Andhra Pradesh. This is the first time that a dubbed version of a Hindi film has evoked such a response.
UTV Motion Pictures executive vice president distribution Suneil Wadhwa said, "The South Indian film market’s potential for making the most of sheer star power is something unique. It’s a one of its kind in India. The encouraging response from Athidhi provides us with a great opportunity to strengthen our hold in the South."
Directed by Surendar Reddy, with music by Mani Sharma, the film also stars Amrita Rao.
The film was backed by marketing tie-ups with brands such as Thums-UP, Kingfisher, BIG FM for the release of the film. Thums-UP launched branded Athidhi pet bottles and ran a contest during the release of the film. The winner of the contest would be a guest at Mahesh Babu’s house. Additionally the film promos were played at the India-Australia cricket match being played at Rajiv Gandhi Uppal stadium in Hyderabad.
