Since August 1 the shooting of Tollywood or the Telugu film industry has stalled as it colloquially known as the Telugu industry is in the midst of a serious problem. This is critical in the light of an average five new releases hitting the screens each week or around 250 films a year, making it the largest in the country.
According to Dil Raju, a well-known film producer, this course correction is necessary in the larger interest of the industry. The OTT has hampered the theatre-going audience, which is at the crux of the need to bring back the theatre-going audience.
It's down to 3 -- 4 weeks now from a time when a film could be seen at home ten weeks after its release. The problem is that a large proportion of Telugu films are easily over half unable to recover their money, if you knock off the likes of RRR.
This period will be used to work on our cost structure, especially the peripheral ones, points out Raju, who adds that it includes cost of production and incidental costs. Another producer points out that star fee has jumped out of control because of high remuneration. He says that the top actors are paid Rs 50 -- 100 crore per film, with the minimum for the smaller stars being Rs 15 -- 20 crore.
The number has gone up by at least 20 per cent over the last three years, without any significant change in box office revenue. It can be as high as 40 crore as a director s fee for a well-known name.
The value of the films stuck today is said to be somewhere in the range of 500 -- 600 crore.
Among the prominent ones are Allu Arjun's Pushpa 2: The Rule, Vijay Deverakonda s Khushi, Nagarjuna s The Ghost, Ravi Teja's Tiger Nageshwara Rao and Ravanasura. Raju picks up his words carefully when he says we are optimistic that the issues will be resolved soon, without giving a timeline.