Samshayam actor Sharafudheen cites these Mohanlal films that emerged to be hits despite ‘silent’ entries: ‘Not just Thudarum, even…’

Mohanlal's Thudarum is continuing its successful run at the theatres even after three weeks of its release. The Tharun Moorthy directorial has already entered the Rs 200 crore club, and is still going strong despite the release of other Malayalam films. Sharafudheen, whose latest film Samshayam recently hit theatres, talks about Mohanlal's fan base and dominance at the box office.

Sharafudheen on Mohanlal's Thudarum success

Commenting on Thudarum’s stellar success, Sharafudheen remarked that Mohanlal has had fans in Kerala at all times. He also listed other Mohanlal films, such as Pulimurugan and Drishyam, too emerged to be hits despite not having much pre-release hype or promotions.

"Terms like sleeper cell have come in now. Even before that, Lalettan has a huge fan base in Kerala. If there is an original comment about a Mohanlal film being a hit, even the elderly people at homes will head to the theatres," remarked the Bougainvillaea actor.

“Not just Thudarum, even Pulimurugan is an example. There were such big crowds at the theatres. Before that Drishyam. All those film made 'silent' enteries and became trends. I had to struggle to get tickets for Drishyam,” he added.

Thudarum box office

The worldwide box office collection of Thudarum is Rs 215 crore, as per industry tracker Sacnilk. The film, which also features Shobana, is only second to L2 Empuraan, another Mohanlal-starrer, on this year’s list of Mollywood hits.

Notably, Empuraan director Prithviraj Sukumaran and Mohanlal had aggressively promoted the Lucifer sequel outside Kerala too. In comparison, Thudarum did not have much online promotions or star cast interviews before the release. Despite that, Thudarum is winning love for its plot and Mohanlal’s stellar performance.

Even though several Malayalam films have been released in theatres recently, none of them have posed a real challenge to Thudarum. Dileep’s Prince and Family and Rekachithram star Asif Ali's Sarkeet released in cinemas last week. Sharafudheen also had two releases in two weeks - Samshayam, which also featured Vinay Forrt, and Padakkalam with Suraj Venjaramoodu.