Baahubali Re-Release  Shakes Up Mani Ratnam?

When  asked what he felt about the forthcoming baap of blockbusters Baahubali returning ti the screen,Karthiwho plays the lead in Mani Ratnam’s Tamil love epic Kaatru Veliyadai  said, “Luckily for us we have a 3-weeks before Baahubali The Conclusion  is released.”

Now, in what could be considered  a marketing masterstroke,  the producers and distributors  DharmaProductions of Baahubali have decided to release the first part of the Baahubali epic on April 7, three weeks ahead of the new Baahubali film which opens onApril 24.

Ideally, the re-release of Baahubali The Beginning should not affect the fate of a Mani Ratnam’s  film. Firstly because Mani is…well, Mani. He has a strong and enduring fan base that would frequent his films no matter what the competition on Friday. Secondly the fairytale epic Baahubali is an entirely different beast from Mani Ratnam’s gentle love story.

But the problem, as someone very close to Mani’s film points out,is that Mani has decided against dubbingKaatru Veliyadai in Hindi, relying on Mani’s universal reputation and the  English subtitles  to pull the Hindi movie-going crowds in.

But now with Baahubali being suddenly re-released, the situation has changed , and not in favor of Mani’s film.

Says a source close to Mani’s film, “We were counting on a 3-week space between our film and Baahubali The Conclusion. But now with the sudden release of the first part of Baahubali along with our film, the Hindi –speaking audience may prefer to see Baahubali rather than our film.”

While the Kaatru Veliyadai team mulls over ‘Mani’ matters, Karan Johar’s Dharma Prouctions the distributors ofBaahubali are laughing all the way to the bank.