Bharat Ane Nenu in 45 countries, biggest overseas release for Mahesh Babu

Director Koratala Siva's Bharat Ane Nenu has been released in 45 foreign countries today (April 20) and this movie has become the biggest release ever in the overseas market for superstar Mahesh Babu.

Mahesh Babu is one of the most popular Indian actors in the international markets, especially in the US. His latest outing Bharat Ane Nenu has been the most-talked-about Telugu movie of 2018 for various reasons including great music. This hype surrounding the movie helped it sell it's overseas theatrical rights for a record price and Great India Films acquired its distribution rights for a whopping amount of Rs 18.20 crore.

Great Indian Films has done massive arrangements for the release of Bharat Ane Nenu in the international markets in a bid to cash on the Mahesh mania. The distribution house has released the movie in 520 locations across 45 foreign countries. This is the next biggest Tollywood release after Baahubali 2. Its screen count is equal to many big-ticket releases of Bollywood superstars like Aamir, Salman, and Shah Rukh Khan.

Mahesh Babu is the most popular Telugu actor in the US, where Bharat Ane Nenu had 2,000 premiere shows in 320 locations on Thursday. It will have 10,000 shows in the country in its first weekend. Great India Films‏ tweeted on April 14, "#BharatAneNenu - USA: 320+ locations, 2000+ premiere shows, 10000+ shows for weekend, Here is the list of #Bharataenenu theaters in USA @DVVEnts @sivakoratala @urstrulyMahesh"

This helped Bharat Ane Nenu register a record amount of advance booking of its premieres as well as its first day in the US. The distributors and exhibitors increased the number of shows based on the demand.

Great Indian Films tweeted, "#Bharatanenenu All the BIG CHAIN theater managers were instructed to add the shows as soon as the current shows fill up near to a full house. For eg: Regal Hadley started with 3shows, now increased to 7shows based on sales."

Many filmgoers kept complaining of no screening of Bharat Ane Nenu in several smaller locations, but the distribution justified by saying they deliberately did not release there as previous big-ticket films did not fare well in those areas. Great India Films tweeted, "It seems few people have complaints that #Bharatanenenu is not releasing in few small locations, we know that we deliberately removed as BB2 did not recover expenses in those locations."

However, the premiere shows of Bharat Ane Nenu are already over and the makers are yet to reveal its collection at the US box office in the preview shows. Idlebrain Jeevi tweeted, "#BharatAneNenu USA tracking is not enabled for premieres. We will only come to know about USA premieres numbers tomorrow! "

Trade experts across the country are curious to know about the collection at the US box office. Taran Adarsh tweeted, "And a Tsunami is about to unleash at USA BO tomorrow... Mahesh Babu's keenly-anticipated Telugu film #BharatAneNenu is expected to fetch a MIND-BOGGLING START from its premiere screenings in USA... Countdown has begun... Will it set new benchmarks?"