Liger box office prediction: Vijay Deverakonda film has ‘brazen mass appeal’, but will audience head to theaters?

“It has become almost impossible to predict a film’s future at the box office,” rues film trade experts, and rightfully so, especially after all the predictions about Laal Singh Chaddha being a blockbuster were shattered. However, they still are hopeful that South star Vijay Deverakonda, who has had a successful run in the Telugu film industry, will bring some respite with his upcoming release Liger, a mass action entertainer, for Bollywood as well.
Liger, helmed Puri Jagannadh, is a ‘pan-India’ film which will release across the country in different languages including Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada. But, it will have the maximum pull in the theaters in the Telugu-speaking states, courtesy the popularity of Deverakonda.

Film dributor Akshaye Rathi is a bit sceptical about Liger’s performance in the northern belt of the country, but about the south, he says, “Vijay Deverakonda has tasted significant success in the Telugu industry and therefore I am absolutely sure that down south, in its Telugu version, the film will open extremely well.” As per him, the factors that might contribute to the film’s success are, “a solid producer in the form of Karan Johar, a solid commercial director in the form of Puri Jagannadh, very interesting music, good scale and the global icon Mike Tyson.”

Vijay Deverakonda and Ananya Panday have been promoting Liger across the country. Film producer and trade expert Girish Johar feels that this is what Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions does the best — promoting its film. He says, “Dharma Productions is going all out in promoting the film. They haven’t fallen short in promoting the film in all nooks and towns of the country. The craze among the audience is huge, which is evident from the crowd that gathers to catch a glimpse of Ananya and Vijay at the promotional events.”
And, it is this noise around the film that is contributing to the sale of tickets. The advance bookings of the actioner are “solid” and quite “encouraging” in Andhra and Telangana, but are not up to the mark in the Hindi-speaking states and Tamil Nadu. “We did expect that it will open good, but the advance booking is poor for both in Telugu and Tamil versions. I heard that the advance booking is very good in Andhra and Telangana,” said Rakesh Gowthaman, who manages Chennai’s popular cinemas, Vettri Theatres.
The Tamil audience, however, is very cautious when it comes to dubbed films. Horically, they take a little time to warm up to the films from other languages and everything depends on the reviews it would receive after their release.
“The advance booking plays a big role in the success of all movies. But, there have been a few examples where the booking was not good but the movie turned out to be well. For example, though the booking was not great for Sita Ramam, the word of mouth went out very well and in its third week, the film is running successfully in many theatres in the city. If the content is too good, people will start coming for Liger. It also has a good face value. And I don’t know why advance is not good,” added Rakesh.
Rathi believes Liger has “brazen mass appeal” and it is not the kind of film that will ride on its advance bookings. Rather, it will have a more current sale of tickets.

“The movie appeals to the common man of India, the mass audience in Tier 2 and 3 cities that goes to single screens, so it will be big on the current bookings. People will go to the cinemas in big numbers on the day of its release rather than booking tickets in advance,” Rathi opines.
Both Rathi and Johar believe that Liger is a “commercial entertainer” which will strike a chord with “the sensibilities of the common people.” Bound to release on over 2500 screens, Liger is expected to earn somewhere in the range of Rs 3-5 crore in the Hindi belt. In the southern states, the film is expected to open with a collection of over Rs 20 crore.
Liger has Vijay Deverakonda essaying the role of an underdog boxer and Ramya Krishnan is his bold mother. Ananya plays the role of his love interest who is ready to stand beside him irrespective of society’s reaction towards him.
Also, the film is expected to give Vijay Deverakonda his biggest opening yet in the Telugu states. It is the star’s first film to release in two years. His previous film World Famous Lover, which had shades of his career-making movie Arjun Reddy, tanked at the box office. However, the trade experts have taken Deverakonda’s 2019 romantic drama Dear Comrade as the box office benchmark.
“Liger should double the opening day collection of Dear Comrade. Between that film and Liger, a lot of things have changed. The market has become bigger and is more dynamic now. I think Dear Comrade’s worldwide collection was about Rs 18 crore. And I think Liger will make gross nearly Rs 35 crore on its release day,” said Deepak, who manages box office tracking website AndhraBoxOffice.com.
(with inputs from Manoj Kumar R)