Will RRR revive this banner’s fortunes?

One of the topmost banners in the South Indian cinema, Lyca Productions, is going through a critical phase. Most of their big-ticket films, 2.0, Darbar, Bandobast and the Tamil remake of Attarintiki Daaredi, haven’t performed upto expectations. Their upcoming project with Shankar and Kamal Haasan, Indian 2, too has faced numerous delays for many reasons and the banner has pinned all hopes on their next project with Mani Ratnam's big-budget period drama, Ponniyin Selvan. In the meanwhile, they have grabbed the distribution rights for Rrr’s Tamil version earlier this month for a record price of Rs 42 crore.

Lyca has reportedly not even watched the trailer of the film before going ahead with their decision. Baahubali’s Tamil version did exceedingly good business and it is this confidence in brand- SS Rajamouli that has made the banner go ahead with the huge sum. However, the advantages that Baahubali had were its fictional folklore setting and the universality of the story. Moreover, the star cast is Telugu and Hindi film-centric in Rrr.

Additionally, in the film, Rajamouli is focusing on two popular leaders – Komram Bheem and Alluri Seetharamaraju – who are more relevant in the Telugu land than in any other region. While the director has maintained that his goal is to glorify the contributions of the leaders on a national scale with Rrr, it’s not easy to say if their stories would appeal to viewers from other regions in the country equally. Lyca, though, would hope the Tamil version of Rrr would revive their fortunes in this lull phase.