Hyderabad: The Sankranti festival is usually a money-spinner for Tollywood filmmakers and distributors. This year it is different. The collection from three big films combined has not crossed the `10 crore mark in the first week.
According to industry sources, the three-day festival pulled in `21 crore in 2010 and `19 cores in 2009, which means that this year’s collection has dropped by 50 per cent.
The repetitive content of the films, the squeeze on farmers who make up much of the audience at this time, inflation and the cautious mood among fans are said to be the cause of the poor box-office takings.
If Arundhati alone grossed `11 crore in 2009 in the first week, Adurs swept the 2010 collections with `13 crore. In contrast, this season all the three releases — Param Veera Chakra, Mirapakai and Anaganaga Oka Dheerudu — have made far from record-breaking collections.
“New releases haven’t fared well because audiences want to be doubly sure before stepping into theatres. The screening of new films like Robo on TV during the festival also affected our viewership," says Mr Vijayender Reddy, president, Telangana Film Chambers of Commerce. The Sankranti festival has in the past made blockbusters of films such as Samarasimhareddy, Narasimhanaidu, Arundhati, Desamuduru, Samarasimhareddy, Varsham, and Nuvvu Vasthanante Nenoddantana. Producer Chintalapudi Srinivas blames the floods and inflation for the dip in viewership.
“Farmers form the major chunk of the audience during Sankranti but the recent floods have affected their livelihood. The spiralling cost of vegetables and groceries has diminished the purchasing power of lower and middle class viewers. Even die-hard fans seem to be adopting a wait and watch approach,” he says.
“The first audiences cause a lot of damage by SMSing reports of the films, while others make nasty remarks, which discourages fence-sitters. Thus, regular viewers are reluctant to spend `200 on what they are told is a bad film,” says Mr Srinivas, a distributor.
Source: Deccan
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