After Sankranthi, summer season is one of the best for films. But 2024 summer sounds to be disappointing as there are no biggies releasing during the season. For now, Vijay Deverakonda’s Family Star and Siddhu Jonnalagadda’s Tillu Square are the only interesting films announced during the season. Both these films will hit the screens during early summer and there are no notable films in April and May. Prabhas’ Kalki 2898 AD is announced but the film will not make it for the release. There are speculations that Indian 2 will hit the screens in May but there is no official confirmation from the team. Two big challenges this summer are IPL 2024 season and the Assembly, Parliament elections in Andhra Pradesh.

The election fever gripped Andhra Pradesh and several filmmakers are eagerly waiting for the Election Notification. A bunch of small budget films and films of small actors will release in summer this year and there would be no notable releases because of AP elections. IPL has been impacting the box-office numbers from the past few years. IPL this year starts in March end and the final will take place on May 26th. IPL will impact the footfalls of evening and night shows all over. The summer releases have to overcome these two biggest challenges.

The non-theatrical market across the nation has seen a huge dip and the digital players are not ready to buy every film. They are choosy and some of them restricted their budgets for the year. The Hindi market (YouTube, Dubbing, Satellite and Digital) for Telugu films too has seen a decline and this is due to various reasons. The satellite market is going down every day after the digital viewership saw a rise. Several top production houses of Telugu cinema announced multiple films before the non-theatrical market has seen a decline. Now they are struggling to take huge risk and some of the films are kept on hold.

There is a discussion in Tollywood about when the market will get revived. It will surely take enough time for the market to settle down and there is no clarity on this. But most of the producers are working in a mood that the market will soon get back to normal at the earliest. There is no problem for the films of stars who are high on success. But the market of young actors who are in a struggling phase is quite low and this is impacting the deals of their upcoming projects. The non-theatrical market of star actors like Ram Charan, NTR, Allu Arjun, Prabhas, Mahesh Babu and others is rock solid. Tollywood for now is waiting for the market revival.

It is almost clear that there are no biggies lined up for summer 2024 release and the best season of the year is getting wasted. Tillu Square and Family Star are the only noted films that will be released in summer. Prabhas’ Kalki 2898 AD is out of the race and the makers will make a formal announcement about the postponement soon. Several filmmakers who produced small and medium budget films are waiting for the Election Notification of the Parliament and Assembly elections of Andhra Pradesh. Once the notification is out, some of the small films will seal their release dates in April and May.

With no big releases, the summer 2024 season would be dry. There are reports that Kamal Haasan’s Indian 2 may hit the screens in May but there is a huge post-production work to be wrapped up. Vishwak Sen’ Gangs of Godavari may release in May or June this year. Sharwanand and Sriram Aditya’s film is expected to release in May. We have to wait to see about the final release chart of summer.

Bollywood has been going through a rough patch and several top actors are struggling for hits. The Bollywood audience are quite interested to watch South films and some of them went on to become the biggest hits. Several top Bollywood production houses are keen to rope in South directors for their next films. Several top Telugu directors are approached and the discussions are on.

Their major goal is to sign a Telugu or Tamil director and rope in a top Bollywood actor for the project. There are a lot of films lined up and are in the initial stages of discussion. Many Tollywood producers are also in plans to collaborate with Bollywood heroes as they have the dates of successful Telugu directors. Atlee, AR Murugadoss, Harish Shankar, Gopichand Malineni, Ajay Bhupathi and others are holding talks for Bollywood projects.

The OTT players are hesitant to buy all the films for high prices. The quotes for the digital rights came down badly and the satellite rights have seen a steep decline over the years. At this time, the Hindi deals too are not encouraging and the producers are facing a huge financial stress. Some of the producers are raising their voices against the actors who are quoting big remunerations. Some of the films are kept on hold and some others are in talks to get shelved.

After the non-theatrical rights have seen a rise, each and every actor hiked his fee irrespective of the success. All the young actors who are taking Rs 5-6 crores have doubled or tripled their remunerations. Ravi Teja is quoting Rs 30 crores and Nani is taking home above Rs 25 crores. Sharwanand, Gopichand, Naga Chaitanya, Varun Tej and others are demanding more than Rs 10 crores but their closing theatrical shares of their recent films haven’t touched double digits. The producers are slowly turning against the huge remunerations of the actors instead of heading for risks.

On the other side, the distributors are not ready to buy the films and they are ready to release the film on a distribution basis. The theatrical risk too falls on the producer. This is a welcome move from the producers instead of heading for risks. Some of them are offering share in the profits instead of paying big for the actors at this time.

2023 has witnessed several surprising hits in Tollywood and several expected films featuring stars ended up as epic disasters. Ravi Teja delivered two disasters in a row with Ravanasura and Tiger Nageswara Rao this year. Samantha’s Shaakuntalam is a bigger disappointment. Akhil who worked hard on Agent for two years tasted a bitter result. Megastar Chiranjeevi got embarrassed with the result of Bhola Shankar. Varun Tejs’ Gandeevadari Arjuna failed to report minimum openings. Prabhas’s Adipurush reported huge openings but the film ended up as a loss. The audience were not much interested in Pawan Kalyan and Sai Tej’s Bro. Naga Chaitanya’s actioner Custody too failed to impress the audience. Here are the 15 epic disasters of Telugu cinema this year:

Kalyanram’s Amigos

Ravi Teja’s Ravanasura

Samantha’s Shaakuntalam

Akhil’s Agent

Gopichand’s Ramabanam

Naga Chaitanya’s Custody

Prabhas’ Adipurush

Naga Shaurya’s Rangabali

Pawan Kalyan and Sai Tej’s Bro

Chiranjeevi’s Bhola Shankar

Varun Tej’s Gandeevadhari Arjuna

Ram’s Skanda

Ravi Teja’s Tiger Nageswara Rao

Vaishnav Tej’s Adikeshava

Nithiin’s Extra Ordinary Man

The digital players have changed paths and there are quite selective. They acquired the rights of several films for hefty prices and their budgets are now restricted. Even the Hindi non-theatrical market for Telugu films has seen a huge decline and it would take some time for the situation to turn normal. All the digital players would get big budgets for 2024 but with vast content being made, they would be quite selective. Our filmmakers are worried about the sudden decline in the non-theatrical deals.

All the top production houses are working on multiple films and most of the projects are not being wrapped up on the planned budgets. As they are banking on stars, the filmmakers have been recovering most of their investment through the non-theatrical rights. Now, they are rethinking about the upcoming films and their budgets. There is no clarity about the exact theatrical and non-theatrical market of any star after the ongoing crisis. Most of the production houses are putting some of their projects on hold till the market makes a comeback. 2024 will be a tough year for Telugu cinema and the entire risk falls on the producer.