Temporary setbacks aside, Suriya's latest film Karuppu has begun its theatrical run with a power-packed start, minting over Rs 15 crore on its opening day across India. The film, which was set for release on May 14, eventually hit theatres the next day as the action drama faced last-minute financial woes leading to cancellation of shows.
Despite the hurdles, Karuppu collected a net of Rs 15.50 crore across 4,891 shows. This brought the total India gross collections to Rs 17.93 crore and total India net collections to Rs 15.50 crore. Overseas, the film has grossed a total of Rs 4 crore in gross collections, pushing its total worldwide gross collection to Rs 21.93 crore.
However, the numbers are lesser than the actor's last film Retro, directed by Karthik Subbaraj. On its first day, the film collected a net of Rs 19.25 crore across 5,453 shows. But the numbers for the RJ Balaji directorial is expected to increase through the weekend, given the positive word-of-mouth reviews that have been circulating across public spheres and social media since Friday.
An excerpt from our CE review of the film read, "Whenever Suriya takes on the Karuppu avatar, the film turns into a veneration of the deity, and rightly so. The scenes set within a divine portal are wonderfully staged and feel like our own version of a Dark Dimension. However, when the focus isn’t on the omnipresent, the film runs out of breath and labours to the next ‘mass’ moment, and it is in this journey that Karuppu loses out on being the true-blue saami padam that it could have been."
Karuppu stars Trisha as the female lead, reuniting with her Aaru (2005) co-star Suriya. The supporting cast includes Yogi Babu, Indrans, Sshivada, Swasika, Natty, Supreeth Reddy, and Anagha Maya Ravi. RJ Balaji also plays a key role in the film.
The film revolves around a father-daughter duo, played by Indrans and Anagha Maya Ravi, who face repeated delays in the hearing of their case, partly due to the manipulative lawyer Baby Kannan (RJ Balaji in an antagonist avatar). After losing hope and leaving their fate to the gods, their case is taken up by Saravanan (Suriya), who plays an incarnate of Karuppusamy. Assisting him is Preethi (Trisha), a lawyer who has previously crossed paths with Baby Kannan.
The technical crew consists of Sai Abhyankkar as the composer, GK Vishnu as the cinematographer, R Kalaivanan as the editor and Arun Venjaramoodu as production designer.