We have already written a detailed article on how Asian Films & Co. bought the theatrical rights of Arjun Reddy for an outright price of Rs 4 Cr and now staring at huge profits since the film looks well set to collect more than 20 crore. Although the makers of Arjun Reddy had huge confidence on their film, they had to sell the rights for a meager price owing to the predicament in getting sufficient theatres to release their film.
The case of ‘Arjun Reddy’ has once again brought the issue of the iron grip the 3-4 big people have been having on theatres in AP & Telangana, and how they are leeching off the profits of talented small filmmakers.
Last year, the makers of Pelli Choopulu had to rely on Daggubati Suresh Babu to release their film, which brought huge money, most of which allegedly went to the big producer-cum-distributor just for his services of making theatres available. Raj Tarun’s debut super hit film, ‘Uyyala Jampala’ too was released by Suresh Babu. Its been a decade but industry people still talk about how much Dil Raju earned by acquiring the complete rights of Sekhar Kammula’s blockbuster ‘Happy Days’ for a platry sum.
Creative and talented filmmakers are somehow succeeding in pooling funds and making innovative, fresh and potential films. However, the biggest problem for them is getting theatres to release their films. The 4 big people, who control the lion’s share of theatres in the Telugu states, then come into picture, buy those potential films cheaply and reap profits.
In a nutshell, the theatre syndicate in AP & Telangana which is being controlled by 3-4 people is discouraging new breed of filmmakers who aspire to bring a change in the Telugu film industry.