Pushpa four day collection share for distributors in Andhra Pradesh region has shocked `Pan Indian' Telegu film producers of RRR ( Ram Charan- Jr NTR) and Prabhas ( Radhe Shyam). Truth is that these `Pan Indian' films cannot wish away Andhra region just like Bollywood cannot win without Maharashtra ( Mumbai) box office collections. The low shares are due to Jagan ministry strictures on movie halls and dizzy prices that film was bought according to film trade.
After the initial euphoric opening and the storm raised in box office, dust has settled on fourth day and reflects the future mood of the general public. 60 % of the film trade or collections has to come from Andhra region. The data shows that Andhra distributors have so far got a share of 40% of the amount that they bought for. The film was sold for Rs 62 crores before the Jagan ministry issued a GO reducing ticket prices. After haggling, it was reduced to Rs 51 crore.
The trade puts the total collections in Andhra at Rs 60 crores for 4 days. This minus the GST and theater rental- publicity, share would come to nearly Rs 25 crores . Producers had agreed that they would compensate the GST paid by distributors, if the share of collections fall below the expected mark. If this happens, the producers takeaway from Andhra would be Rs 30- 35 crores as they would have to give back around Rs 20 crores by way of GST compensation. Nizam that went for Rs 35 crores has done extremely well with 3 day share alone being Rs 25 crore range and showing no sign of drop. CEDED areas ( Kurnool- Kadappa- Chitoor- Antapur) sold for Rs 16 crores has in 3 days given Rs 8-9 crores share.
Much euphoria was generated about Mumbai and North India collections. Film was sold for Rs 20 crores. After 4 days, Hindi nett ( total not share) is Rs 15 crores. On 4th day Hindi belt collection was Rs 2.98 cr. In Tamil, film was sold for Rs 7 crore and four day Nett was Rs 8.81 crore and likely the distributor might lose some money.. In Kerala, E4 minus Malayalam print on Day 1 and in four days got a Nett of Rs 7 cr and they bought it for Rs 5 crore. E4 might scrape through as collections are not that bad enough on Day 4 and has no Malayalam film of any worth as opposition.
AP CM Jagan stopped fan shows - charity shows and unrestricted screenings on the ground that these practices were creating black money and evasion of tax to local bodies, Apart from this, collections were not accounted and box office figures given out were not authenticated. Next blow is that a GO says that all theaters should install a software created by AP government to sell tickets and money gained from this App will be in treasury. After service charges , the collections will be credited to movie halls. It is to bring real box office figures.
Akhanda ( Balakrishna) was a money spinner for Andhra distributors as it was reasonably priced. The producers expected trouble from Jagan and sold it accordingly. The anti- Jagan posturing by Balayya just before release managed to rustle up TDP workers and anti- Jagan viewers to turn out in large numbers . Nani's Shyama Singha Roy ( about reincarnation) is next release.
