Sunday, July 4, 2021

Post Covid 2 - Theaters v/s Producers clash in TN- AP

 

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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