Mideast cine audience bowled over by Rajni magic

Superstar Rajinikanth has done it again.

After running faster than a speeding train, cloning himself into a 100 avatars and even convincing a mosquito to apologise to his on-screen ladylove in the sci-fi blockbuster, “Robot”, the south Indian icon has created new box office record even in the Middle East with the Tamil and Telegu versions of the film, “Endhiran”.

Production house Eros International Media Ltd (Eros International), has revealed that “Endhiran” has recorded a gross overseas box office collection of Rs610 million (Dh50.5m). The film has been released by Ayngaran International, which is a 51 per cent subsidiary of Eros International.

Rajni fever has struck this region like no other, with the Tamil and Telgu versions of the film raking in a whopping Rs70m till date in the Middle East. In the UAE alone, “Endhiran” scored in its opening three-day weekend with Dh1.1m.The tally, of course, pales in comparison to South East Asia, which set the cash registers ringing at Rs210m, followed by the United States at Rs200m. 

The United Kingdom came in third place with Rs80m.And while the Hindi version “Robot” has even broken the record of Aamir Khan’s “Ghajini”, by making a whopping Rs1.17 billion in one week alone and crossing Rs2.6bn till date according to its distributors, Boxofficeindia.com reveals that the movie – with its special effects and the glam quotient of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan – still couldn’t beat the tally of the suicidal protagonists in the romcom “Anjaana Anjaani” in the UAE.

In the three-day opening weekend in the UAE, the Priyanka Chopra and Ranbir Kapoor starrer had raked in a total of Dh1.44m, while “Robot” made a mere Dh3.16m.

Commenting on the success of “Endhiran”, K Karunamoorthy, CEO of Ayngaran International said: “We are pleased to announce the exceptional response to the Tamil and Telegu versions of the film-Endhiran, not just in India but across the world. The magnificent trio – Rajnikanth, director Shankar and AR Rehman have hit the jackpot once again.

“We were very confident about the film breaking all box office records. The combined distribution strength of Ayngaran International and Eros International has enabled us to integrate the Tamil film industry by producing and releasing films very successfully on the global platform.”

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