The highly anticipated romantic drama, ‘Dude,’ featuring Pradeep Ranganathan and Mamitha Baiju, is set for release on October 17th, just ahead of Diwali. Directed by debutant Keerthiswaran, the film has already garnered significant attention, particularly for its advance booking performance in the United States.
In a surprising turn of events, the Telugu dubbed version of ‘Dude’ has reportedly outshone its Tamil original in US advance ticket sales. As of Wednesday morning, the film had secured approximately $59,000 in advance bookings. Of this total, the Telugu version accounted for a substantial $32,000, while the Tamil version garnered $27,000. Industry observers are keen to see if this trend continues as the release date approaches.
Pradeep Ranganathan’s popularity in the Telugu states is attributed to the success of his previous films, ‘Love Today’ and ‘Dragon.’ The Telugu versions of these films had previously shown strong box office performance in India, with ‘Love Today’ earning ₹11.81 crore net from its Telugu release and ‘Dragon’ contributing ₹18.68 crore net. Data from Sacnilk indicates that ‘Dude’ had already managed to earn ₹17.26 lakh in advance bookings within India by 2 PM.
The official synopsis for ‘Dude’ on Fandango describes the plot as follows: “Aravind aka Dude (Pradeep Ranganathan) is carefree and confident, living life on his terms—until love happens. When he meets Kural (Mamitha Baiju), things take an unpredictable turn: laughter, heartache, jealousy, betrayal. As emotions run high, decisions made in moments of passion lead to consequences that threaten everything Aravind holds dear. Against a backdrop of family ties, surprise twists, and emotional reckonings, Dude asks: will Dude rise to the moment or be undone by his own choices?”
The film also features Neha Shetty, R Sarathkumar, Hridhu Haroon, and Rohini in supporting roles. Sai Abhyankkar makes his debut as the music composer for ‘Dude.’ The film is slated to compete at the box office with ‘Bison: Kaalamaadan’ and ‘Diesel’ in Tamil, and ‘Telusu Kada,’ ‘K Ramp,’ and ‘Mithra Mandali’ in Telugu.