Rajinikanth's popularity knows no boundaries. The craze for his movies can give any Tollywood superstar in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana a run for their money. Rajini mania is at its peak in these regions this Friday as his much-awaited film "Lingaa" opens to an earth-shattering response at the AP and Telangana Box office.
"Lingaa" is the most-talked-about and highly-anticipated movie of the year 2014. Its promos hiked the viewers' expectations and curiosity sky high. The makers of the film threw open ticket bookings well in advance and the movie registered very good advance booking for its opening day.
The Rajinikanth, Sonakshi Sinha and Anushka Shetty starrer released in a record number of theatres in the both the states on 12 December. The screening of "Lingaa" started in the wee hours of Friday in many places across these states. The morning shows ran to almost packed houses everywhere.
Rajini mania has been successful in driving unprecedented crowd outside as well as inside both single screens and multiplexes in both these states. The theatres screening "Lingaa" were overflowing with viewers. The movie has registered 100% occupancy in the morning shows almost everywhere in both the states.
Most of the tickets of "Lingaa" were booked in advance for the morning shows and remaining few tickets were sold out within no time. Many theatres displayed the 'houseful' board way before the morning show began. It was a big disappointment for many Rajini fans, who wished to watch the film first day-first show.
At some places, tickets for "Lingaa" were reportedly being sold in black for as high as ₹1,000, which irked some movie buffs, who could not get tickets even after waiting in queue for hours. While some fans opted to buy tickets in the black market, a few could not stop raising voice against the owners of cinema halls. Finally, the police were called in to control the mob in some areas.
With the first show over in most areas, "Lingaa" has garnered mixed reviews from viewers as well as film critics. But most of them have expressed positive response for the film. Word-of-mouth publicity showed a big escalation in its business in the later shows on Friday.
Lingaa has concluded the opening day of its release in both the states. The makers are yet to reveal figures of its Friday collection. As per early trends, the film has collected approximately Rs 5+ crore at the AP and Telangana box-office on the first day of its release. It has been the opening day business record of Robo, which was the biggest opener for Rajinikanth in these states.
