Kabali by the numbers: Catch up on the madness around Rajinikanth-starrer

Kabali releases in theatres across the world on Friday, 22 July. If by some miracle (or misfortune, depending on which way you look at it), you’ve managed to miss out on the madness surrounding Rajinikanth’s movie, here’s a handy primer that should serve you well, and bring you up to speed. Kabali is Rajinikanth’s 156th film. In it, he plays an ageing crime boss called Kabaleeshwaran. Radhika Apte plays his wife. The film is set for the most part in Malaysia. _Read Radhika Apte's exclusive interview to Firstpost here._ [caption id=“attachment_2906260” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Radhika Apte stars with Rajinikanth in ‘Kabali’[/caption] Most media reports have said it is opening in 4,000 screens worldwide, but that may be mildly incorrect. The number — going by the published consensus — is 3,900: 400 in the US and the rest all over the world. In north India — which is not Thalaiva’s typical turf, Fox Star Studios is exhibiting the film across 1,000 screens. Rs 200 crore — this is the pre-release business Kabali has already generated. How has the film earned so much money? Well, account for rights to the film in various languages, satellite deals and music rights, and you come up with the sum. _Read Latha Srinivasan's break-up of how Kabali earned its 200 crores, on Firstpost._ Rs 500 crore — that’s how much money Kabali producer Kalaipuli S Thanu predicts the Rajinikanth starrer will make. And why not? If it’s already earned over Rs 200 cr of this — and working on the assumption that it will at least match the Rs 260 crore business drummed up by the comparable Salman Khan-starrer Sultan so far — 500 crore doesn’t seem like an impossible target to meet. _Read: As Kabali-Sultan comparisons are drawn, these are the numbers Rajinikanth starrer has to beat_ With Kabali, the producers and director Pa Ranjith have also made a concerted effort to reach out to moviegoers beyond Superstar Rajinikanth’s core fan base in Tamil Nadu. So not only is Kabali being released in Tamil, it is being dubbed in at least four other languages. These are: Hindi, Telugu and Malay. There is also likely to be a Malayalam dubbed version, and talks are currently on to get Thai and Chinese language versions of Kabali as well. The number of views for Rajinikanth’s hit song, ‘ Neruppu Da’ from Kabali stands at 12,576,536. Composed by Santhosh Narayan, the track has caught on like wildfire even among non-Tamil speakers. Rajinikanth’s film Enthiran (Robot) held the record for being the Tamil film with the highest box office collections worldwide; it had earned around Rs 290 cr when it released in 2010. However, it was superseded by SS Rajamouli’s Baahbubali in 2015, which earned around Rs 600 crore globally. Rajinikanth’s films Sivaji and Lingaa (which was widely considered a ‘flop’ by the superstar’s usual standards) also figure in the list of top-10 Tamil blockbusters.