Irandaam Ulagam - Week 1 Box Office Report 

The box office performance and subsequent complications of Irandaam Ulagam have come in as a rude shock for many in the industry. This has created a number of challenges for Selvaraghavan and PVP to sort out.

Overseas Box Office Collections for Irandam Ulagam and Varna

The overseas rights of Irandam Ulagam was believed to be bought at the last minute by actor Arya since there were no-takers at the quoted price. The overseas rights were reported to have been bought from producers for Rs. 2.5 Crores.

US & Canada - The movie's collection in both Tamil and Telugu totaled to only Rs.46 Lacs ($75,000).

UK - In the UK box office, the weekend collection was only Rs. 20 Lacs (£19,024). After paying the theatre rent and shipping logistics, the collections could barely cover the print and rent costs. 

Satellite Rights

Tamil satellite rights for Irandaam Ulagam were not sold as of this week. The satellite rates typically sell for Rs. 10 Crores to Rs.12 Crores for movies of similar budget scale. Unfortunately with the verdict well known, the satellite rights in Tamil are expected to fetch Rs.5 Crores, well below its potential

Box Office Tally for Tamil and Telugu (Varna) in Domestic Markets

Due to PVP's clout in Telugu, the producer had always considered Telugu as the primary market. PVP decided to do full-fledged promotions and widely released the movies on their own all over AP. In Telugu the reviews have been unanimously negative for the movie and has resulted in poor box office collections.

Overall, on a cost basis of Rs.50 crores for Tamil and Telugu, the revenue is expected to make not more than Rs 25 Crores to.30 Crores leaving a net loss of Rs. 20 to Rs. 25 Crores. The producers have been claiming Rs. 60 Crores as the product cost. If so, the losses could be further in red.

PVP's Web of Contractual Conditions; Selvaraghavan in a Fix

When a movie fails at the box office, the producer usually bears the burden of the losses. In the past, when the producers of Selvaraghavan got burned with losses, they did not have any legal contracts to protect themselves. These failed producers who invested on Selvaraghavan faded away into oblivion without much of a fight to recover the losses.

In this case, PVP forced Selvaraghavan to sign detailed contracts with director bearing most of the risks and losses. Selva worked on this movie during the last 2 years based on minimal monthly pay-outs while focusing on the upside of profit-sharing clauses in the contract.

Selvaraghavan's Comeback Options

The industry believes that the only way Selva can dig out of this deep hole is to direct at least one or may be even two budget movies for PVP without accepting any remunerations. PVP has thought through all possible scenarios and carefully worked in the clauses into the contract in such a way that Selva will be bearing equal or unfair share of Irandam Ulagam & Varna's losses.

Hopefully, Selvaraghavan can work through the difficult phase valiantly and come back with a resounding successful movie.