Mungaru Male 2 box office collection: Ganesh-starrer holds well despite Cauvery issue

Shashank's Mungaru Male 2 has made a decent collection at the box office despite the disruptions caused by the Cauvery row. The Kannada film is expected to do good business in the coming days, since there is no competition coming up from biggies.

Early estimates coming from trade experts say that Mungaru Male has earned close to Rs. 15 crore in the six-day first week. The business of the film, which stars Ganesh, Ravichandran and Neha Shetty in key roles, was severely affected by the Cauvery row on Monday and Tuesday as theatres remained shut due to violent protests. It is believed that the movie lost somewhere between Rs. 3-4 crore in two days.

However, sources say that Mungaru Male 2 faced the heat from the Cauvery dispute mainly in Bengaluru, Mysuru and Mandya, as theatres in most parts of the state remained open. As a result, the film made a collection of about Rs. 15 crore.

"The protests over the Cauvery issue took a huge toll on the collection of Mungaru Male 2. We had pinned high hopes on the Bakrid holiday. Unfortunately, Bengaluru and Mysuru came to a standstill. But the collections were decent on Thursday and Friday," director Shashank told International Business Times, India.

"We were a little worried about the Tamil Nadu bandh on Friday, Sep. 16 as a small incident over there can trigger violence here, eventually affecting the collection of Mungaru Male. Luckily, the bandh ended in peace," a visibly-relieved director added.

With the tensions between two states easing down, the makers of Mungaru Male hope to recover the losses in the next few weeks. The delay in the release of Puneeth Rajkumar's Doddamane Huduga, which was supposed to be out on 24 September, has turned out to be a blessing for the film, and no biggies will challenge the Ganesh-starrer for the next 13 days in theatres.

Mungaru Male 2 has been made with a budget of Rs. 10 crore, and is expected to gross over Rs. 30 crore. The film was supposed to be released on 9 September but the bandh call given by pro-Kannada outfits forced the makers to delay it by a day.