Kerala box office: 'Pretham' becomes biggest solo blockbuster of Jayasurya

The comedy horror entertainer, "Pretham," has become the biggest solo blockbuster in Jayasurya's acting career. The Ranjith Sankar-directorial venture, released on Aug. 12, had entered the Rs. 10 crore club within 17 days of its release at the Kerala box office.

Trade analysts have now said that the movie has earned a gross collection of Rs. 12.45 crore, with a net amount of Rs. 9.92 crore and Rs. 5.80 crore share within 23 days of its release. The movie is said to have collected over Rs. 1.3 crore from multiplexes in Kochi alone after 25 days of its theatrical run in the city.

In "Pretham," which also stars Aju Varghese, Sharafudheen and Govind Padmasoorya in the lead roles, Jayasurya plays a mentalist. His character John Don Bosco is seen finding the real reasons behind the paranormal activities that take place in the sea-side resort bought by youngsters Denny Kokken, Priyalal and Shibukuttan. The movie opened to a tremendous response from the audience, who hailed it for moving away from the conventional horror thrillers that viewers are familiar with in Malayalam films.

Meanwhile, Mohanlal and Junior NTR's bilingual action thriller "Janatha Garage," which was released on Sept. 1, made a business of approximately Rs. 14.28 lakh within five days at Kochi multiplexes. The highly-anticipated superstar movie entered the Rs. 1 crore club owing to the huge fan following that Mohanlal enjoys in the state. The opening day collection of the Malayalam version of the film is said to be Rs. 1.07 crore in Kerala. But the Mohanlal-starrer, directed by Koratala Siva, later witnessed a drop in its collection due to the mixed response it received from the audience.