Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Ready to pay Rs5,000 to see Rajinikanth? - DNA India

Ready to pay Rs5,000 to see Rajinikanth?
Published: Wednesday, Sep 29, 2010, 8:26 IST
By Sunayana Suresh | Place: Bangalore | Agency: DNA

Are you going to watch Rajinikanth in his Endhiran avatar first day, first show on October 1?

Tickets are coming with a price that will leave you gasping for breath. Rajini fans are willing to pay nearly Rs5,000 for a ticket for the sci-fi thriller which industry watchers point out as a new record in India.

In Karnataka since the release is limited to 24 theatres there will be a mad scramble for tickets.

Salman Khan’s Dabangg and Aamir Khan’s 3 Idiots had forced people shell out Rs1,000 per a ticket in the opening weekend.
While the official pricing for the film seems to be the highest in Bangalore, with the PVR Gold Class charging as much as Rs2,500, single screens seem to be selling tickets in black market for much higher.

A distributor sheds light about the picture in Karnataka. Says he: “For someone to recover as much as Rs10 crore that has been spent on the film in Karnataka from just 24 screens, the film needs to run to packed houses for over 20 weeks. No wonder multiplexes are pricing the tickets as much Rs750 and Rs2,500 at PVR or Rs450 at Inox.”

In Chennai, tickets are priced only above Rs300. In some of the multiplexes, the tickets for the film are priced up to Rs1,000. Says the film’s publicist Nikil Murugun: “Rajinikanth is no less than a phenomenon. People would gladly give an arm or a leg to watch the film in the opening weekend. No wonder the film’s tickets are priced like this.”

And the craze isn’t limited to Tamil Nadu.
The dubbed Telugu version of Endhiran in Andhra Pradesh seems to be attracting all the frenzy. A member of the Rajinikanth Fan Club in Andhra Pradesh says: “The reports for highest priced tickets sold in black range from Rs4,000 and Rs5,000. There were reports of police busting a theatre where tickets were sold for Rs5,000 and above in black.”

http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_ready-to-pay-rs5000-to-see-rajinikanth_1444971