Pranav Mohanlal’s Hridayam earns Rs 50 Cr in 25 days, to make way for Mohanlal’s Aaraattu in Kerala theatres

Despite the Omicron threat and the Sunday lockdowns in Kerala, actor-director Vineeth Sreenivasan’s Hridayam, which has Pranav Mohanlal, Kalyani Priyadarshan and Darshana Rajendran in the lead, raked in a whopping Rs 50 Cr in worldwide box-office earnings in just 25 days since its release on January 21.

The makers of the movie had insisted on a theatrical release, despite multiple offers from big OTT platforms, and this seemed to have paid off, with the film still running to packed theatres in certain centres. This despite the announcement that the movie will drop on Disney+ Hotstar on February 18.

The coming-of-age romantic drama revolves around the life of youngster Arun from his college days till he is about 30 years old. The movie, which was shot in Chennai and Kerala amid the pandemic, is also the biggest hit in Pranav’s career and has been doing well abroad as well as in Tamil Nadu.

In a recent interview with The Cue, the film’s producer Visakh Subramaniam had said that he wants the film to still run in theatres even though it will stream on Hotstar. He has requested FEUOK, the theatre owners body in Kerala, to change their by-law permitting films to be screened in theatres as well as OTT simultaneously.

Hridayam, which received a wide release, will now make way for Mohanlal’s Aaraattu, which is a big-budget ‘mass’ entertainer. The latter is set to release on February 18 in a record number of screens in Kerala with at least four daily shows in these centres.

The success of Vineeth Sreenivasan’s directorial, however, has given a lot of hope to producers of other movies who had been mulling direct-to-OTT releases after the COVID-19 cases had surged this year. After Aaraattu, there are a slew of films lining up for release including Mammootty’s Bheeshma Parvam, Tovino Thomas’ Naaradhan and Kunchacko Boban’s Pada.