As curbs ease, theaters and film producers all over the South ( except Kerala) are headed for a showdown. Telangana Film Chamber has asked members to wait till October and desist from releasing films on OTT. Tamil Nadu exhibitors have refused to pay any minimum guarantee amount for any film. In Kerala the situation is the same and only those producers who can release on their own and pass on higher share of the earnings have come forward while others are moving towards OTT. The Kannada exhibitor sector which depends largely on Hindi- non Kannada films for survival have a different economics altogether.
Sivakarthikeyan starrer Doctor which is the only big ticket movie that is ready for release is yet to confirm a release date. The reason being that no distributor is able to get any advance from theaters. Exhibitors say that they have no cash to offer or take a risk. Even Arun Vijay’s Border is facing the same problem. Doctor is directed by Nelson whose film was the Nayanthara-starrer Kolamaavu Kokila. Nelson is currently directing Vijay's Thalapathy 65, which is produced by Sun Pictures.
The last time, TN exhibitors made money was the release of Vijay starrer `Master’ and followed by Dhanush Karnan and Karthi’s Sulthan. Producers feel that a lesser profit margin from OTT is better than taking a full risk with theatres. If a film gets released on big screen, the OTT – Satellite rates will fall.
In Hyderabad
, film producers Suresh Babu ( Venkatesh- Rana clan) and Allu Aravind ( Chiru
family) have veered to selling films to OTT. Venkatesh film Narappa, Drishyam 2
and Most Eligible Bachelor and 18 Pages from Allu Aravind is headed for OTT.
Nithin’s Maestro, Sundeep Kishan’s Gully Rowdy and Vishwak Sen’s Paagal are moving
towards OTT.
Suresh Babu who controls a vast chunk of movie
halls in AP/ TS is facing flak as an exhibitor since he himself is ditching the
exhibition sector. Allu Aravind who runs aha OTT too is ditching theatre sector
for immediate gains.
Unlike in Kerala ,where all sectors joined hands to
give films releasing post Covid 2 an uninterrupted
run, Distributors in AP/ TS who have bought Kannada film KGF 2 ( dubbed in
Telugu) are fighting for theatres to release on the same day as that of
Balakrishna’s Akhanda.
Karnataka exhibitor lobby is controlled by Puneet
Rajkumar and family. The hard truth is that except for a few Kannada actors,
the crowd pullers still are the Bollywood heroes and followed by Tamil- Telugu
Stars. Bollywood is grappling with the multiplex - OTT release issue. The
multiplexes are asking for a longer gap
between theatre and OTT release.
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