Mohanlal's Manyam Puli and Vijay Antony's Bethaludu are set to be released in a large number of theatres in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (AP/T) on December 1. With no original Telugu releases scheduled, the two dubbed films are set to clash with each other at the box office.
Manyam Puli, the dubbed version of Malayalam movie Pulimurugan, is an action adventure film, which narrates the story of an ordinary man, who has a rivalry with tigers from childhood. How he gets trained to hunt tigers and save villagers forms the crux of the plot. Udayakrishna has written the story for the Vysakh-directed movie
Mohanlal has played the titular role in the film, while Kamalini Mukherjee, Jagapati Babu, Bala, Lal and Vinu Mohan appear in other important roles. The movie, which has been made with a budget of Rs 25 crore, became a blockbuster success at the box office, with its lifetime gross collection crossing Rs 125 crore.
Mohanlal has amassed a huge fan following in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, with his two recent releases, Manamantha and Janatha Garage. Pulimurugan also features other popular actors like Jagapati Babu, Kamalini Mukherjee, Kishore and Namitha. The makers have dubbed the film in Telugu in a bid to cash in on these stars' popularity and the Telugu version is likely to be a hit at the box office.
Bethaludu is the dubbed version of director Pradeep Krishnamoorthy's Tamil film Saithan, which is a psychological thriller. Vijay Antony and Arundathi Nair are playing the lead roles, while Charuhasan, Meera Krishnan, YG Mahendra and Siddhartha Shankar appear as supporting characters.
Vijay Antony's last outing, Pichaikkaran, was dubbed in Telugu and released as Bichagadu on May 13 2016. The movie became a blockbuster success at the AP/T box office. Its success has created a lot of curiosity about Bethaludu, and makers have promoted the dubbed film in a big way. The hype and publicity are expected to make the Telugu version of Saithan a big hit at the box office.
Manyam Puli and Bethaludu belong to two different exciting genres. Both of them have been surrounded by good amount of hype and promotions, and are being released in a decent number of screens across the Telugu-speaking states. But Vijay Antony's film is a notch bigger than Mohanlal's movie in terms of hype, publicity and the volume of release. So Bethaludu is likely to make a better collection than Manyam Puli at AP/T box office.
