Kranti rampage: 135+ shows sold out, many more fast filling, but ticket rate a dampener

It’s been well over 24 hours since advance booking for Challenging Star Darshan’s Kranti opened. While die-hard fans made a beeline to fill up the first day first shows at 6 am on January 26, bookings for the rest have also been steadily picking up. For instance, in Bengaluru, Kranti has 480 shows, of which 135+ are sold out and many more are filling up fast. Bookings at multiplexes, which have shows beginning at 8 am, had a slow start, but that too is on the rise. Day 1 does look good for the Darshan starrer.

Despite the excitement surrounding the release of the film, which is Darshan’s first since 2021’s Roberrt, fans are a tad exasperated about the ticket rates across cinema halls. Even the most basic single-screen theatres that do not have great audio or visual output have opened bookings at Rs 200-250. Multiplex rates begin at Rs 300 and go up to Rs 1,200 in select halls. Cinephiles who have booked tickets for Kranti point out that the rate disparity is such that the same theatre that had Vikrant Rona in 3D at Rs 250 only, will play Darshan’s film at Rs 350. The hike in ticket rate, of course, is not comparable to KGF: Chapter 2, which was a lot higher.

Meanwhile, industry trackers reckon that since advance booking opened on January 22, over 1 lakh tickets have been sold to the tune of a gross of Rs 2 crore in Karnataka only. The film team has been categoric that their sole focus is on the Kannada version of Kranti, although dubbed versions in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi are also available. A decision as to whether to give these versions also theatrical releases or whether to take them only to OTT will be taken at a later stage, based on the response to the original.