Advance Booking: Pinning Hopes On The UptickThree notable films will be in cinemas this week. One of them, Yuvarathna, has already arrived in theatres. The remaining two, Wild Dog and Sulthan, will hit the screens tomorrow on April 2nd. Wild Dog stars Akkineni Nagarjuna, whereas Karthi heads Sulthan.

Wild Dog features one of the top senior stars, Nagarjuna. Usually, it would be opening well, but a ‘lack’ of ‘traditional’ commercial appeal shows the impact on the advances. They are weak, to put it mildly. Remember, it is so with the advantage of a holiday, in place.

The good news is that films like Wild Dog, which caters to the multiplex audience, show a quick uptick if made well. It is faster when a star heads them. All it needs is the right word of mouth, and there is a jump in the occupancies all over.

King Nagarjuna is confident and has promoted the movie aggressively over the past week or so. Still, the genre and narrative-based trailer and presentation have shown their effect. It was the same case with a couple of films in the past from Nagarjuna. They, however, picked up excellently later.

Karthi, too, is sailing on the same boat. Sulthan’s occupancies are much lower than Wild Dog. It would also need great word of mouth to take the jump. Karthi is a known face to the Telugu audience. There will be growth, even if slower if it gets the desired talk.

Among the holdover releases, only Rang De and Jathi Ratnalu (in its last leg) have some scope to get the footfalls. Nithiin, mainly, will be hoping for some jump in the weekend as the movie still needs to cover ground to breakeven.