Box-office numbers for Pushpa are overwhelming, says director Sukumar

Overwhelmed by the response the action entertainer is getting from audiences across all languages on Friday, Sukumar said his film has the potential to withstand and face the negativity that is being peddled against the film on social media. 

Hyderabad: Director Sukumar says his latest flick at the box office ‘Pushpa: The Rise’ is a standalone story and can’t be compared with likes of ‘KGF’ and other magnum opus flicks like ‘Baahubali’. 

Overwhelmed by the response the action entertainer is getting from audiences across all languages on Friday, Sukumar said his film has the potential to withstand and face the negativity that is being peddled against the film on social media. 

“I wanted to make a commercial cinema with all the required sensibilities at the same time showing its natural story. ‘Pushpa’ was made keeping in view the commercial elements at the same it should be organic in its true sense. That’s the base formula. The visuals conceived in ‘KGF’, ‘Baahubali’, ‘RRR’ are quite different. Whereas Pushpa has emotion, no way related to the genres like ‘KGF’,” he adds. 

There’s a talk that the second half is a bit draggy? 

“It’s inevitable for me to narrate the story keeping the part 2 in mind. It should be connected with the next one. That’s when you might feel the lag. I felt that if every scene is enjoyable to watch, there’s no room for such logic whether it’s lagging behind or it is let down with a weak climax. Producers have been saying the film collected more Rs 10 crore in Nizam territory alone. Even competing with ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’, ‘Pushpa””s box office numbers are very overwhelming. With three hours runtime and with fewer shows being screened than usual in multiplexes, we were able to see good response.” 

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Despite forced by SS Rajamouli to promote ‘Pushpa’ in Bollywood, Sukumar says the deadline to release the film made them back out from promotions in Hindi. 

“The big surprise is the response at the Hindi box office, we haven’t taken part in promotions. Rajamouli garu has been advising us from time to time to venture out and reach audiences in the north. But I tried to reason out saying that ‘Pushpa’ isn’t a big film. At one point, he nearly chided us saying it’s not about how big the film is, it’s a story that should reach a widespread audience. Although he forced us, we didn’t have enough time to do it. But the numbers at the box office are overwhelming, The gross for day one is pegged at Rs 4 crore in Hindi alone. It’s all because of Allu Arjun’s craze and popularity in Bollywood, ‘Pushpa’ was able to seep into people,” he adds.