The Telugu film industry banks on three major windows to rake in revenue — Sankranti, summer holidays and Dasara. In a reasonably good year, film goers get to watch at least five to six big budget films in summer along with a few medium and small budget releases.
The plans were big for 2015 with the audience hoping to watch Baahubali and Rudhramadevi among other films. But the inevitable delay of these films due to postproduction and other reasons has shifted the focus to July and August.
S.S. Rajamouli’s Baahubali has locked in July 10 as its release date and Koratala Siva’s Srimanthudu starring Mahesh Babu is expected on August 7. Gunasekhar’s Rudhramadevi and Ravi Teja-starrer Kick 2 are the other big films expected.
“April, followed by May, is the best time to release a big budget film like ours. That’s the time when parents and children come to watch films and we are ensured of a repeat audience when we have a good product. We couldn’t finish the film in time for summer,” says Baahubali ’s producer Shobu Yarlagadda. He counts on the huge expectations riding on the film to bring in the audience in droves. As the team inches towards the release date, he says it will be screened in roughly 1200 to 1300 screens across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, 3000 to 4000 screens across India, and 250 to 300 screens overseas inclusive of Telugu and Tamil versions.
The Hindi version will be released by Karan Johar’s production house across the Northern belt, with a few halls screening the Telugu and Tamil versions. “The regional distributors will take a call on releasing the prints with subtitles in cities like Mumbai and Delhi,” adds Yarlagadda.
The industry is waiting to gauge the performance of Baahubali and see when Rudhramadevi and Kick 2 release. Medium and small budget films are biding their time. Among them are Deva Katta’s Dynamite starring Vishnu Manchu, Allari Naresh-starrer James Bond and Praveen Sattaru’s Guntur Talkies among others.
( Mahesh Babu in 'Srimatnhudu'. Photo: Special Arrangement)
“In the last three months, there’s been a backlog because of the delay of big films. One has to respect a huge film like Baahubali and understand that there’s no point in trying to hurry and release your film during that period. We are going to wait and plan a release,” says Praveen Sattaru. Besides getting enough screens to release, he raises a point about promotions. “Until Baahubali releases, it will get the major chunk of space on web and television and smaller films will not get enough visibility,” he adds.
Medium budget filmmakers are hoping their films will get a window to release before another set of big films release closer to Dasara.
Meanwhile, the Hindi film industry will add to this juggernaut with Salman Khan starrer Bajrangi Bhaijaan , Ajay Devgn’s Drishyam and Akshay Kumar starrer Brothers in July and August.
