Box office round up of Kannada movies in February 2020: ‘Popcorn Monkey Tiger’ tastes success while ‘Gentleman’ fails to sustain at theatres

The Kannada film industry had a good end to 2019 with movies like ‘Avane Srimannarayana’, ‘Odeya’ and ‘Katha Sangama’ entertaining the audience. However, they didn't keep up in January 2020. New movies were released and later, in February 2020 filmmakers brought out some great movies to the audience. These included films like ‘Popcorn Monkey Tiger’, ‘Gentleman’, ‘Mayabazar 2016’, ‘Shivaji Surathkal’ and more. However, we will look at those movies which showed and the worst performances at the Kannada box office.

The long-awaited movie 'Popcorn Monkey Tiger' became the biggest hit of February 2020. Directed by Duniya Suri, the film starred Dolly Dhananjaya and the raw flavour of violence, blood, and crime in the film gained a lot of attention from the audience. The movie has collected Rs 2.53 crore at the box office on day 1, and earned Rs 3.5 crore on day 2. Dhananjaya plays different shades in the movie which sees Nivedita playing the lead opposite the actor. The movie also has cast like Rekha, Sudhi, Naveen, Gowtham, Allu, Nikhil, Nagraj, Sapthami Gowda, Amrutha Iyengar, Monisha Nadgir and others who are playing major roles.

‘Mayabazar 2016’ had a good impact on the audience and gained huge attention. The comedy crime drama was directed by Radhakrishna Reddy and produced by PRK Productions. The movie attracted audience owing to its title ‘Mayabazar 2016’ which gives a nostalgic feeling of the 1957 movie ‘Mayabazar’. According to sources, the movie had a low start at the box-office, and it is expected to increase in future. Apart from Power Star Punneth Rajkumar appearing in a cameo in the film, it also stars Raj B Shetty, Vasishta Simha, Prakash Raj, Sudharani and Chaitra Rao. Midhun Mukundan has composed music for this one.

Ramesh Aravind’s 101st movie, ‘Shivaji Surathkal’ did a good business at the box-office. Even though the movie didn't have many theatres in hand at the time of release, the number of screens was increased after the release which helped with increasing the collections. The movie earned Rs 2 crore in the first week of release, and its revenue went higher in the 2nd week. Ramesh Aravind, for the first time in his career, played a detective in the film which is directed by Akash Srivatsa. Actress Radhika Chetan and Aarohi Narayan are playing the female lead roles in the movie.

‘Gentleman’ was another movie based on medical conditions which was released in February. This action thriller is based on the sleeping disorder called Sleeping Beauty Syndrome in which, the patient sleeps 18 hours a day. This film was directed by Jadesh Kumar Hampi and starred Dynamic Prince Prajwal Devaraj and Nishvika Naidu in lead roles. The movie was unsuccessful in impressing the audience and only managed to collect under Rs one crore at the box office. However, despite the low box office performance, Pajwal Devaraj’s acting in the movie was appreciated by the audience. Apart from that Sanchari Vijay was seen in a major role in the movie.