Baahubali 2: How Fans Convinced Bosses To Give Them Half Holiday For Film

New Delhi: Baahubali: The Conclusion will make Rs 100 crore on day one, insisted confident fans on the red letter day for the second part of director S S Rajamouli's magnum opus. In Hyderabad, the first screening was held at 7.30 am, two hours before the regular morning show timing. Ticket-holders queued up from 6 am - some even earlier - and heralded the film with fireworks and milk baths for posters, the sort of grand reception a Rajinikanth film is assured of. Baahubali-branded T-shirts are selling like hot cakes across the country. There are queues outside theatres in Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai, where the early morning shows were reportedly cancelled because of a permit issue, is lining up now.

A grand premiere scheduled for Thursday in Mumbai was cancelled after the death of actor Vinod Khanna but on Friday morning, excitement was high. The Hindi version of Baahubali: The Conclusion "is at par with a Khan release," the producer of the film told NDTV - that appears to have been something of an understatement. Fans who spoke to NDTV outside Mumbai theatres revealed they had taken half the day off to watch the film. "Convinced our bosses 20 days earlier. We will work 30 minutes extra every day and make up. But you have to let us watch it on the day of release," they said.
 
Some declared their intention of watching Baahubali 2 multiple times and revealed they had booked tickets for shows three days in a row. Their biggest expectation from the film (apart from the 100 crore opening business) - the secret of why Katappa killed Baahubali in the climax of the first film, Baahubali: The Beginning, which released in 2015. "We were scared we would receive spoilers on social media. Thus came early," said some fans.
 
Baahubali: The Conclusion is releasing across 8,000 screens and in several languages - Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and more. It is easily one of this year's mega movies, to be matched perhaps only by the likes of Rajinikanth's 2.0 later this year.

Rajamouli's cast includes Prabhas as Baahubali, Rana Daggubati as Bhallala Deva, Sathyaraj as Katappa, Ramya Krishnan as Sivagami, Anushka Shetty as Devasena, and Tamannaah Bhatia as Avantika.

The sale of its satellite and distribution rights is reported to have fetched Baahubali: The Conclusion Rs 500 crore. Its ticket sales will be tracked avidly by analysts and fans, both.