The ultimate star

It could not have come at a better time as Mankatha is his 50th movie. Ajith Kumar’s fans have made this festive season a joyful one for him. Released on August 31, the film managed to get the biggest opening so far for a Tamil movie this year. Trade analysts say that Mankatha was a phenomenal hit in Tamil Nadu as well as in Malaysia and Singapore. The occupancy in theatres, on the day of its release, was almost 100 per cent, they claim. And the film’s Telugu version, Gambler, is making its presence felt in Tollywood too, according to recent reports.

Mankatha was the biggest release ever for Ajith Kumar as the film was released in more than 350 screens, drawing a maximum number of people to all its shows. Perhaps, it reflected the euphoria experienced when the Rajnikanth-starrer Enthiran released last year. On the day of its release, Mankatha’s UK collections reportedly stood at £110,000.
In Chennai, five days post-release, collections stood at Rs 1,79,35,278 from 774 shows.

The film’s success comes at a time when the industry is plagued by the onslaught of piracy and high price of tickets. Says a film distributor in South Chennai, “Mankatha has given us fresh hope. A movie well-conceived, neatly packaged and played to the gallery with enough publicity will always hit the bull’s eye.” Mankatha was well-executed by director Venkat Prabhu that led to its success. At a time when most actors in Tamil cinema want to be portrayed as glamourous and ‘positive’ stars on-screen, Ajith Kumar chose to be a little different and convincingly pulled off a negative role with panache.

Director Venkat Prabhu understands the audience and weaved a beautiful thriller with cricket and betting as its core theme, which struck an instant chord with the masses. Says C Shyam Sundar, a film analyst, “The movie isn’t preachy or judgemental, which is why everyone loved it.” “With an extended weekend, thanks to Ramzan and Vinayaka Chathurthi, we had five holidays on our hand. We screened five shows in single theatres per day and multiple shows in multiplexes. Mankatha managed to garner huge collections and started registering profits from the second week,” said a theatre owner in Chennai.
Ajith’s fans always ensure that his movies take a bumper opening in the first week. And they did it for Mankatha too. During the second week, the film started receiving good reviews. Backed by aggressive publicity by Sun Pictures, Mankatha did extremely well at the box-office.

Known as an actor who is unperturbed by neither success or failure, Ajith credited the success of his 50th film to Rajnikanth. “I learnt a lot from him. So, I would like to dedicate Mankatha’s success to this iconic actor.” He added, “At the same time, I personally express my gratitude to each and every member of the cast and crew, who gave nothing but their best to Mankatha.”

Asked about his negative role in Mankatha, the actor said, “Post-Vaalee, I had not portrayed a negative character on-screen. When I approached Venkat Prabhu, he narrated Mankatha’s script to me and I was instantly hooked. I loved my character in the film and I knew that the project would do well. However, I never expected it to be so well-received.”

Interestingly, buoyed by the response to his salt and pepper hairdo in Mankatha, Ajith has decided to retain it in all his films. Also, the actor is planning to be a part of scripts that would give him a chance to play characters that suit his age. “I came to know that my fans loved my salt and pepper look in Mankatha. May be after Billa 2 (his next film), I will retain it,” said Ajith.

Venkat Prabhu, the man behind the film, said, “Initially, I wanted to make the film with my usual team and planned to sign Vivek Oberoi for the lead role. Producers Dhayanidhi Alagiri and Vivek Rathinavelu agreed and we decided to fly down to Mumbai to finalise the locations. However, the next day, I got a call from Ajith Kumar asking me if I was making a film with a negative character in the lead. I explained the concept and story and Ajith was excited to be a part of the film. I readily agreed and the rest is history.”