Competition creeps in on Singham Returns from the original Singham

16 Aug 2014

Contrary to the trade talk, Singham Returns is not the solo release this Friday. There is some competition from unexpected quarters for Bollywood monsoonal blockbuster from Tamil Nadu.

It's Ajay Devgn versus Suriya this week at the Mumbai box office. And Suriya's film is not in Tamil but largely Hindi. Cleverly the 'Tamil' film Anjaan is being released by UTV as a purported blockbuster in over a 100 screens all over Maharashtra.

Interestingly, Suriya had played Singham in the Tamil original film which was remade by Rohit Shetty with Ajay Devgn in the lead.

Tamil superstar Suriya's new film Anjaan is technically in Tamil. But a large part of the dialogues are in Hindi. And most of the film's main actors barring Suriya are from Mumbai. These include Manoj Bajpai, Vidyut Jamwal, Chetan Hansraj and Chitrangda Singh.

Explaining the lingual dichotomy of Anjaan, the film's cinematographer Santosh Sivan says, "It's a Mumbai-based subject and a large part of the dialogues are in Hindi. These haven't been dubbed into Tamil, although it's a Tamil film.

Anjaan is being released as a mainstream film with nearly 1400 screens. Of these nearly a 100 screens are in Maharashtra." Clearly then, UTV is not looking at Anjaan as a regional film. Protests Santosh, "It is not a regional film. Its characters are Mumbai-based. It's a very different kind of modern gangster film. The characters speak in Hindi. And there is an overlapping voiceover in Tamil for Suriya's core fan-base, so that the flavour of Hindi language spoken by the characters is not lost in translation." Taking a stand against piracy UTV would be releasing only digital and no hard print of Anjaan anywhere in the world. Would all this add up to any notable competition for Singham Returns ? Opines trade analyst Taran Adarsh, " Singham Returns is a brand and will be the first choice in Maharashtra and North, East and Western India. However, Suriya is a big draw in South India.

Anjaan will be the first choice in the Southern markets." Taran doesn't rule out the possibility of Anjaan making a substantial dent in the Hindi-speaking belt. "This is a very big weekend, with August 15 being a holiday. The business for both films will be optimum."