The buzz on Thalapathy Vijay’s last film Jana Nayagan has reached fever pitch with ₹10 crore in advance bookings for its opening day in India. The film is also headed by the world-famous filmmaker H. Vinoth and will be released on July 23, and is one of the most eagerly awaited movies in Tamil cinema this year.
Jana Nayagan has already generated ₹10.60 crore in advance ticket sales across India on its first day, with more than 4,300 shows sold. We have a controlled screen count so far, and not many premium locations have been fully opened yet.
The numbers will increase significantly in the next couple of days as more theatres will accept reservations and fan enthusiasm is building. The strong advance booking success is only increasing the expectation for a huge box office opening.
Tamil Nadu has the largest share of advance sales for the film, with almost half of the total box office. The state has already made around ₹4.87 crore in advance ticket revenue, which can be added to Vijay’s popularity among Tamil film fans. Karnataka has followed closely with ₹3.04 crore, with a huge number of moviegoers in Bengaluru in the lead.
Bengaluru is the best market, with over ₹3 crore in advance sales. In fact, the city accounts for almost 30 per cent of the nationwide pre-sales, and Vijay’s fan base is very large outside Tamil Nadu. Chennai has received over ₹1.18 crore in bookings and occupancy rates as high as 86 per cent in many theatres. Major cities like Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Madurai, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram have also experienced good ticket sales ahead of launch.
As expected, the Tamil version of the film dominates the advance booking chart. The Tamil-language release has contributed more than 96 per cent of the total pre-sales and has so far generated about ₹10.17 crore. The Telugu version has attracted moderate numbers, while the Hindi version has received less attention. Most bookings are for standard 2D screenings.
The good booking numbers are a result of a long and winding road to release. When Jana Nayagan was first scheduled to release for Pongal, the film faced a lot of certification and legal obstacles and had to wait seven months. Now the film has received an ‘A’ certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and can enter theatres.
There was also a leak of high-definition images from the project earlier this year. And that was a big issue for fans and a big problem for the production team because they were afraid it was going to spoil the film’s commercial success. But the strong advance booking numbers indicate there is a lot of interest in the film.
Jana Nayagan is also produced by KVN Productions and has a star cast of Pooja Hegde, Bobby Deol, Mamitha Baiju, Prakash Raj, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Priyamani, Narain and Nassar alongside Vijay.
The movie’s significance is that most fans think it will be Vijay’s last acting project before he gets into politics. The buzz about the superstar’s swansong in front of the camera has created massive interest among fans; Jana Nayagan is one of the most eagerly awaited Tamil movies of recent years.
And with advance bookings already more than ₹10 crore and momentum going strong, all eyes are on July 23 to see if Jana Nayagan can deliver one of the biggest opening-day collections in Tamil cinema history.
