Three days in, and GV Prakash Kumar finally has the kind of number his fans have been waiting a while for. Immortal, the horror film directed by Mariyappan Chinna, has crossed Rs 5.23 crore gross at the box office in its opening weekend, with net collections at Rs 4.51 crore, according to Sacnilk figures cited by Filmibeat Tamil.

That's not a blockbuster number by any stretch. But for an actor whose hero-led filmography has mostly stalled at the box office, it counts. Filmibeat Tamil points out that among GV Prakash's films as lead, only Darling and Bachelor had managed anything close to a hit tag before this. Bachelor topped out at Rs 6.2 crore lifetime. Immortal, on current pace, is expected to sail past that figure as early as Sunday.

The film released on Friday, September 4, into a crowded week. It was up against Dhulquer Salmaan's I Am Game and the Tamil-dubbed version of Bethlehem, both new arrivals in the same window. Immortal apparently held its own from day one, with word of mouth turning positive almost immediately and bookings picking up sharply by the second day.

In Immortal, GV Prakash plays a character called Mahi. Kayadu Lohar plays the film's central supernatural figure, a 4,000-year-old immortal described in the reporting as a vampire who refuses to die. Filmibeat Tamil's review of the film's reception credits her performance, more than anything else, for turning audience sentiment in the film's favour, going as far as to call the casting a stroke of luck for the hero. Whether that's fair to the writing and direction is a separate argument. But the trade chatter around the film does seem to centre on her.

There's a pattern here worth flagging. GV Prakash has built something of a side reputation for spotting actresses before the rest of the industry catches up. Mamitha Baiju, whom he introduced, has since gone on to be spoken of in Malayalam cinema circles as being in the same conversation as Mohanlal and Mammootty audiences, on the strength of Premalu and the Bethlehem franchise. Filmibeat Tamil's report suggests Kayadu Lohar might be following a similar trajectory with Immortal.

Projections doing the rounds put Immortal's ceiling at around Rs 10 crore if it holds through the week, a comparison being drawn to Nayanthara and Kavin's Hi, which trade watchers regard as a recent example of a smaller film clearing the bar for box office success. Whether Immortal gets there depends entirely on how the film performs once the opening-weekend novelty wears off.

Monday numbers, and whether weekday footfall holds anywhere close to the weekend, will tell us if this is a real hit or just a strong three days.