Kabzaa advance bookings: Despite upcoming festival, no hiked rates for tickets of R Chandru’s film

On March 12, advance booking for R Chandru’s most ambitious project to date, Kabzaa, began. The film is releasing in theatres on March 17, only days ahead of the Ugadi festival, which falls on March 22, and yet, it is not hitting theatres with hiked ticket rates.

The trend in Kannada cinema circles has been that the bigger pan-India films hike ticket rates, especially in the first couple of weeks, but going by the bookings open so far, it looks like Chandru is not opting to make a quick buck, even though he is distributing the film in Karnataka. OTTplay checked the rates of ticket at all the screens where bookings are open so far and they’ve consistently been between the Rs 150-Rs 250 mark at single-screens, depending on the class of ticket chosen. At multiplexes, though, it may be a different story, as the lone one that’s opened bookings, PVR Cinemas at Dr Rajkumar Road, did so with tickets ranging from Rs 350-Rs 800. Pricing here varies depending on the show timing also. In Hyderabad, ticket rates start at Rs 50 and go up to Rs 350 so far, with most single-screens not exceeding Rs 200. Mumbai, Chennai and Kochi are yet to open bookings for Kabzaa.

The film, which has Upendra in the lead, pairs him with Shriya Saran, while Kiccha Sudeep and Shivarajkumar play pivotal cameos. The film follows the protagonist Arkeshwara, and how he goes from being a law-abiding citizen to a dreaded gangster who rules over India. The film, which was nearly three years in the making and has been in the news for its similarities to Rocking Star Yash’s KGF, has cinematography by AJ Shetty, music by Ravi Basrur and art direction by Shivakumar, all of who have worked on Prashant Neel’s movie as well.

The film boasts a massive ensemble cast, including names like Nawab Shah, Suneel Puranik, Pramod Shetty, Anup Revanna, Kabir Duhan Singh, John Kokken, Murali Sharma, Kota Srinivas Rao, Posani Murali Sharma, among others.