Karthi and Arvind Swamy starrer Meiyazhagan premiered to mostly positive reviews and strong initial talks. However, the emotional drama resonated primarily with a specific segment of the audience and failed to garner unanimous acclaim.
In its first week, Meiyazhagan grossed nearly Rs 40 crores, with impressive performance in overseas markets. The film had moderate success in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka but struggled in the Telugu states, where its box office returns fell short of expectations. Most notably, the film performed poorly in Kerala, an unexpected outcome for a drama of this nature, which typically thrives in the Malayalam film industry.
Despite being a slow-paced film rich in emotions and storytelling, Meiyazhagan only managed to collect around Rs 65 lakhs in its first week in Kerala, with final collections projected to be below Rs 1 crore. This is surprising, especially given that director C. Prem Kumar’s previous film, 96, had a stellar run in the state, grossing Rs 8 crores—outperforming many major star films at the time. Unfortunately, Meiyazhagan has not resonated with the Kerala audience, leading to its rejection despite the high expectations surrounding its release.
