The Greatest of All Times (GOAT), starring Thalapathy Vijay and directed by Venkat Prabhu was released worldwide on Thursday, 5th September. The film was made on a huge budget of 340 crores, and it will take a huge effort in making a profit surpassing the budget. The film showcased a lot of potential on the day of its release and it earned 44 crores in India on the opening day. The subsequent days however, saw a dip in the numbers and by the end of the weekend, GOAT as of now, has amassed 117 crores in India.
The film was released in Tamil and Telugu only which seems like a bad move considering the magnanimity of the project. Most of the National Cinema chains like PVR-INOX refused to screen the movie in Northern states. The gap between the theatrical and digital release of Southern films are just 4-5 weeks, which hampers the earning of the film and the chains as well. As of now the film can only be seen in the small theatres in North.
Starring Vijay, being one of his last films, and action packed film with a huge budget; this could have easily made the movie top the charts in other languages too. Not releasing the film in Hindi can be hazardous for the makers. The movie as of now accounts about 90% of its collection to Tamil audiences. Taking a look at Kalki 2898 AD, which is currently the most successful film of the year, it released the film in Hindi dub, just after its release. By the end of the first week, the Hindi collection was at par with the Telugu collection; by the end of the second week though, the Hindi collection surpassed that of Telugu.
This shows the potential audience that remains in the Northern parts of India. People avoid watching films in their original language and choose dub instead, but being devoid of dub, they will not pay attention to that film. Also, the foreign audience consists mostly of the Indian immigrants who will watch the film mostly in Hindi. Hence, Hindi release could have bettered the overseas collection as well. Currently when the film occupies only 61% of the seats in Tamil region, and keeps on depreciating day by day; Hindi release could have been a saviour; especially in a time where no Hindi movies were released, GOAT could have dominated the theatres at least for this week.
The production team plans on releasing the Hindi dub later, but it won’t be that effective. Many big films are about to be released in Hindi and in English which will divert the audience from GOAT; also, after a while, the buzz for a movie diminishes, as in the case of Thangalaan, hence, stalling of the Hindi release will reduce the excitement of the audience. If the movie had been released instantly in Hindi, the makers could have expected almost double the amount of collection as they received now. Looking at the situation in the North, the Hindi speaking audience could have accounted for the major target audience for the film.
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