Katappa ne Baahubali ko kyon maara...

Mona

Katappa ne Baahubali ko kyon maara — is what the nation wants to know! With a day to go before the mighty sequel — The Conclusion hits the screens, the Baahubali fever is at its peak. Anyone with a ticket for the show is a man (or woman) of some standing today.  When celebs like Sidharth Malhotra tweet, “Catching #Baahubali2 tom damn excited,” you can only imagine the thrill of the population. One man, in fact many many, even tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the same, “@narendramodi sir, my gf wants to know why did Katappa Kill Baahubali? But tickets are way 2 costly. Can i get 2 tickets plz!”

Tricity fever

So it is obvious that Tricity hasn’t been lost to Baahubali charm. Sukhdeep Singh, a mass communication student, is amongst the privileged lot who, along with his three friends, has the ticket to the first day show! “No easy feat,” he grins ear-to-ear. “I booked online but first I had to struggle to get the seats I wanted. Then, it was being cancelled again and again; finally it was the long labour and we have the tickets.” While an amazing Baahubali and even more awesome trailer for the second outing are Sukhdeep’s reason to catch the early show, for Ayush Sharma and his friends, engineering students, it’s is Prabhas. “Obviously, we want to know why Katappa killed Baahubali, but have you seen the body Prabhas has made for this film — incredible.”

Solve the puzzle

Mohini and her daughter Ishman are the biggest Baahubali fans and have the tickets in place. “My daughter bets that it was on the asking of Baahubali that Katappa killed him; I can’t wait to know the truth,” she shares.  

Harmandeep Singh has his exams looming large, but that’s not what’s going to stop him from the mega experience of life. First day, first show it is for him too. “Badi jaddojahad ke baad ticket mili,” he admits, proud of the feat. 

Simran Kaur, a final-year student is going for first day, first show with her entire tuition batch, “When the first part was so amazing, we cannot help but see the second; I am certain it is going to be awesome,” says this Prabhas fan, who couldn’t have enough of his looks, just like her friends. Amit Sharma, who runs an Institute of Commerce, says that regardless of exams, this is one film nobody is going to miss. Neither is he!  

Total frenzy

Interestingly, not only is #Baahubali2 trending, even #Baahubalitickets! People tagging their booking ids, complaining of high prices and the online portals misbehaving as frantic fans try to lay their hands on prized tickets...it’s all happening!

“Never seen such craze for any film,” declares Raj Juneja, a film distributor. “Even single screens like Neelam are doing exceptionally well with advance booking,” he shares. As soon as the advance bookings opened, some 60 per cent of the screens were booked in PVR Mohali. “This is an exceptional response,” admits general manager PVR, Mohali, Maneet Kumar. While there is heavy booking at all cinemas across Chandigarh, a rather new entrant, Raj Hans Cinema, in Panchkula, within 24 hours of advance ticket opening, had some 1,000 tickets for Friday itself sold! Their average hasn’t ever crossed 500 to 600.  “We are a Surat-based group, and all our cinemas across the country have never experienced such a huge demand,” says Parveen Nagar, unit manger with Raj Hans Cinema, Panchkula.

Eyeing records

Trade pundits foresee Rs 1000 crore opening for Bahubali 2: the Conclusion. “It’s the game of three days and over the weekend, this film is going break every record ever set,” says Raj, adding, “Yadi film main dum hai to agle do hafte cinemas full rahne wale hain.”

It is quite obvious then that there are no new releases for the next two weeks and earlier releases have paved way for most screens playing Baahubali 2. While Elante is playing 21 shows in total, Fun Cinemas has 16 and PVR Centra has 15 each day. Yet, if you haven’t booked the tickets in time, well, you can tag the Prime Minister too!

[email protected]