NEW DELHI: Vincent Tabaillon, who is renowned for having edited many major Hollywood productions, has begun work on editing Bahubali: The Beginning to make it suitable for international release.
Tabaillon’s earlier credits include Now You See Me, Taken 2 and The Incredible Hulk.
The edited version will be completed by the end of August and will be shown to film festivals, sales agents and distributors with a view to a wide international release. It will be different from the version released on 10 July in India and Diaspora markets.
Arguably India’s most expensive film, Bahubali cost $40 million to make together with its 2016 sequel Bahubali: The Conclusion, according to a report in Variety.com.
Since release, Bahubali has set new Indian box office records, setting new opening day and opening weekend numbers. The five-day gross worldwide now stands at $33.8 million. It had grossed $25.6 million in its opening weekend, smashing records in the process.
Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni’s Arka Media produced the film, directed by S.S. Rajamouli (Eega, Magadheera), and released it worldwide on some 4,650 screens in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam-language versions.
The website said the film is also the biggest Indian opener in the US, where it was released across 250 screens and took $4.4 million over the weekend. The film’s per screen average of $17,000 is second only to the mighty $27,000 achieved by Minions.
The report said the opening day record for Shah Rukh Khan’s 2014 release Happy New Year had been $7.1 million, which Bahubali surpassed with $7.8 million.
The record for Indian opening weekend was also held by Happy New Year with $17 million but Bahubali collected $22.8 million.
The Aamir Khan starrer PK retains its record of $120 million for 2014 including strong China, South Korea and US numbers.
Bahubali will eventually see release in East Asian markets. The vfx-heavy story of brothers in medieval India in conflict over a rich kingdom is of a piece with Tsui Hark, John Woo and Zhang Yimou extravaganzas and should resonate with those audiences.
