PTI

New Delhi, Aug 29: With Tamil cinema super star Rajnikanth's latest blockbuster Sivaji -- The Boss still running to packed houses in some pockets outside South India, the producers of the film have decided to dub it in Hindi and are planning a post-Diwali release.

"Sivaji -- The Boss will be dubbed in Hindi as the response for the film in Delhi, Mumbai and other major cities outside South India has been overwhelming," said S C Babu, CEO of AVM Productions.

"Some portions of the film will be re-shot to cater to the Hindi-speaking audience and Rajnikanth will dedicate three to four days in shooting," Babu told PTI from Chennai. Asked whether Rajnikanth will dub his voice in Hindi, Babu said "indications are that he is unlikely to do the dubbing."

However, the length of the film will be reduced to two and half hours from the existing three-hour duration as most of the Bollywood films do not exceed the time limit of 150 minutes. Even though some of Rajnikanth's films were screened outside Tamil Nadu earlier, Sivaji -- The Boss got a rousing response from people who thronged theatres in major cities such as Delhi and Mumbai.

"Sivaji -- The Boss has proved that language is not a barrier when it is Rajnikanth," Babu said. Swanand Kirkire is penning the dialogues for the dubbed version and is likely to finish his work by October. "But we are planning a post-Diwali release. We don’t want to release a dubbed version during the festive season," he said.

The film, which is likely to be released by the end of November, will be screened in not less than 300 theatres across the country. Babu said that after seeing the initial response, AVM thought it should exploit the opportunity.

"Right from the beginning, we had plans to dub the movie in Hindi and simultaneously release it with the original Tamil version. We couldn’t do so because of the time constraints," he said. Sivaji -- The Boss is billed as the most expensive production in the country till date with budget estimates ranging from Rs 70 to 96 crore.

Babu said the film's original version ran to packed houses even in cities like Jodhpur (in Rajasthan) and Lucknow. "The film did well at the box-office in North India and we had to send 33 prints in addition to the 12 that were asked for by the distributor," he said.

Sivaji -- The Boss has also been a huge hit in countries like Malaysia, Singapore and the United States. "For instance, in US, people travelled more than six hours to watch the film and a ticket was priced around USD 29 against the usual rate of USD 10 and in Malaysia, the response was huge," Babu said

Sivaji -- The Boss is still making huge money in over 15 theatres in Chennai and its suburbs. It was released in more than 500 theatres across the state on June 15 while the Telugu dubbed version was released in 350 theatres.

The film is about the protagonist's fight against black money in society, which Rajnikanth did in his own trademark style with a combination of punchy dialogues, comedy, romance, songs and colourful costumes.