4 min readHyderabadSep 23, 2026 06:34 PM IST
During the pre-release event of Rajinikanth’s Kaala, Telugu distributor NV Prasad shared a detailed, first-person account of how Rajinikanth personally refunded his distribution losses after the commercial failure of the 2002 film Baba, revealing that the superstar not only returned every rupee of the loss but added an additional Rs 1 lakh.
Prasad, who held the distribution rights for Andhra Pradesh and Nizam for Baba, recounted the sequence of events, “For the Baba movie release, I had acquired the distribution rights for Andhra Pradesh and Nizam. One week after the release, Rajinikanth sir personally called me to check on how the film was performing at the box office,” Prasad said.
About a month after the release, Prasad received a call from Rajinikanth’s manager asking him to visit the superstar’s office. What happened there was not a casual conversation. It was a financial accounting. “When I went there, they asked me to give a full account of the losses. Once we calculated everything, it came to Rs 1.60 crores. They asked me to come back the next day,” Prasad recalled.
Also Read: Rajinikanth’s colossal disaster forced him into hiatus, ‘destroyed’ Manisha Koirala’s career
When Prasad returned the following day, Rajinikanth did not negotiate, he handed over the full amount and then some. “Rajinikanth sir refunded the entire loss and gave me an additional one lakh on top of it as profit. He told me I was the first distributor to receive the refund and that the Karnataka distributor would be next,” Prasad said.
Then came the line that Prasad says he has never forgotten. “He told me, ‘I am not going to take this money to Dubai. I made Baba for my satisfaction, not to cause you losses,’” Prasad recalled.
What happened with Baba
Baba, a supernatural action drama directed by Suresh Krissna, was one of the most anticipated Tamil films of 2002. Rajinikanth, who was returning to the screen after the massive success of Padayappa following a three-year gap, had written the screenplay himself. The film co-starred Manisha Koirala and Amrish Puri, with music by A.R. Rahman. It was produced by Rajinikanth under his own banner, Lotus International.
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The film was sold to distributors across all territories for a then-record price of approximately Rs 17 crore. While the hype was enormous, with the opening, the audience response was devastating. The film’s supernatural storyline, which revolved around a carefree atheist who discovers he is the reincarnation of a Himalayan saint, divided audiences sharply.
According to multiple reports, Baba yielded a theatrical share of only Rs 3 crore against the Rs 17 crore it was sold for, leaving distributors across every territory with massive losses.
What Rajinikanth did next is what separates the Baba story from every other box office failure in Indian cinema. He called each distributor, calculated their losses and paid them back from his own pocket. According to DNA India, Rajinikanth returned approximately 25 percent of the total investment to distributors, paying over Rs 3 crore from his personal funds.
The aftermath
The failure of Baba deeply affected Rajinikanth. He did not sign another film for three years, retreating from public life entirely. When he returned in 2005 with P Vasu’s Chandramukhi, the film became a blockbuster and re-established his commercial dominance. He has not looked back since, delivering hits including Sivaji, Enthiran, Kabali, Petta and Jailer.
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Also Read: After successful re-release of Rajinikanth’s Baba, Kamal Haasan’s Aalavandhan to hit screens
In 2022, exactly 20 years after its original release, Baba was re-released in theatres in a digitally remastered version with a shorter runtime and an alternate ending. The re-release collected over Rs 4 crore and received a significantly warmer response than the original.
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