Martin, Dhruva Sarja’s most recent film that released in theatres for Dasara on October 11, had a ‘success party’ on day 3 of its theatrical run. This despite the fact that the film opened to overwhelmingly negative response, owing to its below average making and storyline. The film team including leading man Dhruva had claimed that a sizeable portion of the budget (the final figure of which remains undisclosed) had been recovered in pre-release business.

Martin's budget and how much has been recovered 

The budget of Martin is rumoured to be in the Rs 100-120 cr range, if not more, a large chunk of which is due the hefty interest payments that were made during the course of the film’s making. According to industry trackers, Martin’s lifetime theatrical revenue in Karnataka is around Rs 20-21 cr, with another Rs 4-5 crore from other centres. It is estimated that the film’s theatrical share from Karnataka is around Rs 13-14 cr, which by all means suggests that the makers are still pretty much in the red and far from recovering the money spent on the film.

Prior to the film’s release, it was rumoured that the satellite and digital rights had been sold, but a source close to the team had said that negotiations were still ongoing when Martin hit theatres. Zee Network was said to be the interested party, but whether or not they went ahead with the deal post the negative response to the film, remains unknown.

Apart from the delay in finishing the film, Martin was in the news because of issues with the vendors contracted to do the VFX work. There was an allegation that director AP Arjun was the recipient of a sizeable commission to ensure that the work went to a particular vendor. Producer Uday Mehta had initiated legal action against the vendor. Later, the producer and director were also involved in a tussle, during which it came to light that they’d not been on talking terms for a while.

The last straw, however, came when the team began evoking copyright strikes against YouTube reviewers who had panned the film. In some cases, even legal action was taken against reviewers.

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