Malayalam cinema witnesses a box office shakeup as Dulquer Salmaan’s production, ‘Lokah: Chapter 1-Chandra,’ achieves remarkable success. The film has surpassed Mohanlal’s ‘L2: Empuraan’ and ‘Thudarum,’ becoming the second-highest-grossing Malayalam film with ₹122.05 crore in 19 days. While ‘Lokah’ eyes ‘Manjummel Boys’ record, it marks the beginning of a five-part cinematic universe, with future installments featuring Tovino Thomas and Mammootty.
Mohanlal and Mammootty are considered the biggest stalwarts of Malayalam Cinema. Even after decades the two of them are enjoying some of the best fan followings in the country. Just this year Mohanlal released three films in L2: Empuraan, Thudarum and Hridayapoorvam, out of which two of them made it to the list of biggest hits of Hindi cinema. But Mohanlal has to now make space for Mammootty’s actor- producer son Dulquer Salmaan as his latest production Lokah: Chapter 1-Chandra is running riots at the box office. The film in its 19 day run has displaced two of Mohanlal’s biggest hits , first it was Prithviraj’s directorial venture L2 : Empuraan from the third spot and now it’s turn of Thudarum.Dominic Arun’s directorial venture has collected Rs 119.58 crore by the end of it’s third weekend and it was only a matter of few days before Thudarum’s record of Rs 122 crore came tumbling. Lokah did that on it’s 19th day ( Monday) itself when it collected Rs 2.65 crore thus taking the collection of the film to Rs 122.05 crore. And with that Lokah: Chapter 1 – Chandra is now the 2nd biggest hit of Malayalam cinema. The film was released in Malayalam and as the days passed and its word of mouth grew, it was released in other languages. If one looks at the breakdown till now, the Malayalam version has contributed Rs 94.32crore to the total tally, with Telugu version contributing Rs 13.15 , Tamil Rs 11.7 crore and Hindi at Rs 3 crore as per Sacnilk.The film will be now be eyeing the record held by Manjummel Boys which has a lifetime collection of Rs 142.05 crore for which it requires another Rs 20 crore.The film though still has long legs at the box office going by numbers but reaching the number 1 spot looks like an uphill task . Lokah is the part of the 5 part series to form the first ‘Universe’ of Malayalam Cinema. With the next part being led by Tovino Thomas who made a brief appearance in the first part. It will be followed by Dulquer Salmaan in the lead and fourth one would be Mammootty in the lead.
