Who is responsible for bleeding of Tollywood?

THANKS to SS Rajamouli's monumental effort, the Telugu film industry has been classified into two eras -- as "Before Baahubali and after Baahubali". The Rajamouli's directorial erased the regional boundaries and barriers of language to give a proper exposure to film industry and initiated the trend of pan-India films.

Everything was fine until the pandemic hit the world. Like every industry, the film industry also suffered the worst during the first, second and third waves of the COVID-19 crisis. The Tollywood significantly recovered from the pandemic blues in no time and caught everyone's attention.

But, that is not all. So many underlying issues that were pushed under the carpet surfaced again, troubling the filmmakers, more so, the producers, who invest heavily in filmmaking.

In the last few days, Active Telugu Producers Guild and Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce members convened a meeting to discuss issues that are currently crippling Tollywood.

To understand the same, we have to uncover the flashback!

The emergence of OTT and survival of theatres

As soon as the pandemic set in, many films, which were ready for release in theatres, were brought to a halt by the pandemic situation. Thriving on the helplessness of the producers, the OTT streaming platforms started bagging films for fancy amounts and the theatrical releases stopped.

For instance, Colour Photo (Best Regional Telugu Film at the National Film Awards 2020) and Soorarai Pottru (Best Film at the National Film Awards 2020) skipped theatrical release for an immediate OTT release.

In a way, they led to the prominence of the OTT platforms, and slowly, the audiences shifted to the small screens and avoided flocking to cinema halls. The very survival of theatres has become a challenge. It was felt more evidently in the Telugu states, given the fact that Tollywood generates a lot of business in a financial year.

With the emergence of OTT, many theatres in both the urban and rural areas were shut down. Workers, whose livelihoods depended on the survival of the cinema halls, became the biggest casualties. However, the OTT platforms flourished with a new release every weekend.

Slow but steady revival of theatres

After uncertainty for almost nine months, Tollywood started witnessing the revival of the theatrical business in January 2021. With Mass Maharaja Ravi Teja's Kirack, the producers, distributors and exhibitors began seeing revenue in theatres. However, it turned out to be only a momentary phase amidst the pandemic as most of the family audiences preferred to watch movies from the comfort of their homes.

With time, there was a flurry of films released in theatres and Tollywood was the first to announce the new release dates preparing the audiences again for the carnival of entertainment at the cinema halls.

Calm after the storm

In April, Pawan Kalyan's Vakeel Saab was scheduled for a theatrical release and that was when Tollywood began facing the second hurdle: the row over ticket prices.

Andhra Pradesh Government issued a GO in April 2021, ordering all the cinema halls to sell movie tickets at a reduced price. Many trade pundits and analysts termed the scenario as political but the producers of Vakeel Saab had to overcome many issues in bringing the film into the theatres. A few say that Pawan Kalyan's speech targeting the Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy and his government during the pre-release event of Republic was the sole reason for the entire film industry facing the wrath in the form of the slashed ticket tariffs.

With the decreased ticket prices, the survival of theatres in Andhra Pradesh was once again pushed into a quandary. Many exhibitors and theatre owners threatened to shut down theatres while being aware that such a step would have a distressing impact on many who are dependent on the functioning of the cinema halls.

There was this perceived impression that, because Vakeel Saab's release was advanced, Andhra Pradesh's government acted harshly on several other films by implementing the lower ticket tariff regime.

Amidst the chaos and after a series of developments, the film was released but had to be removed from the theatres before its optimum run because of the second wave of pandemic.

The film industry's woes came back to square one again, with the closure of theatres and OTT's steady emergence.

The rise and fall of movie ticket prices

The second half of 2021 passed by on a dull note for Tollywood, with a lot of uncertainty over the ticket prices in Andhra Pradesh.

On the flipside, the government of Telangana extended its full support to the film industry and issued a new GO hiking the ticket prices.

In between, multiple big-budget flicks were postponed only because they did not want to release their movies when there were lower ticket prices in place. RRR, Acharya, F3, Bheemla Nayak, Radhe Shyam and some other films were delayed for this reason.

Then, there came this most recent phase where, Allu Arjun, dodging all the odds, lived up to his new-found fame of an 'Icon Star', took the theatres by storm with the release of Pushpa: The Rise. The film's success rekindled hope among filmmakers.

Megastar Chiranjeevi, Akkineni Nagarjuna, Dil Raju, DVV Danayya and a few other biggies from the industry held multiple discussions with the AP government to solve the issues amicably.

New year and new struggles

Year 2022 has been the year of hope for everyone. With the pandemic's impact coming down and the third wave not being very alarming, everything picked up the pace.

However, Tollywood witnessed new issues.

Bangarraju (2021 January) was the only biggie released during the prestigious Sankranthi season. Nagarjuna Akkineni, who played the film's titular role, also produced it. He boldly stated that he had no issue with the reduced cinema ticket rates in Andhra Pradesh. It angered many film personalities, but Nagarjuna defended his statements.

After a long wait, the AP government showed signs of some climbdown and agreed to a hike in ticket movie prices, prompting the filmmakers to quickly line up the pending releases. Megastar Chiranjeevi played a crucial role in negotiating the issue amicably with the AP government.

But then, Bheemla Nayak was lined up first for a theatrical release. Despite a few hiccups, the film managed to have a smooth release, making the Tollywood bigwigs 'over-confident'. They thought that there was no stopping them.

Audience's rude shock to Tollywood

With the governments of both the Telugu states allowing ticket prices' hike, the producers were on 'Cloud 9'. Without giving a rational thought to factors like the budget, the face value of the cast and the reach of a project, the industry people released films with hiked ticket prices across the Telugu states.

Aadavallu Meeku Joharlu, Radhe Shyam, RRR, Ghani, Acharya, Sarkaru Vaari Paata, F3, Major, Ante Sundaraniki, Pakka Commercial, Happy Birthday and Thank You are some notable releases so far this year.

Except for RRR and Major from the above list, all the other films ended up as failures – some of them were the biggest disasters -- at the box office.

The producers never really assessed the situation from the perspective of the audience, who are the reason for their existence. With the increased ticket prices, the footfalls at the theatres turned out to be very low. The families showed no interest in watching the films in theatres. Had the ticket prices been maintained at reasonable levels, most of the above films would have been successful, despite having mediocre content.

The OTT platforms took advantage of this situation again. They inked deals with the producers to release the films on OTT in less than a month of their theatrical releases. There were cases where the films landed on OTT in less than one or two weeks.

It resulted in the distributors and exhibitors incurring severe losses. Slowly, the producers also started understanding the situation but still, they blamed the OTT for the losses.

This brought about the realisation among the Tollywood filmmakers that they really needed to think and act with their feet firmly rooted to the ground. What followed was a reconciliatory scenario where the producers flashed posters to send across the message that they were releasing their films with reduced ticket prices. Still, it did not impress the viewers.

Film unions strike, OTT window and everything in between

Less than a month ago, multiple unions that are a part of the film industry called for a strike, dissatisfied with the wages they are being paid. The producers incurred losses as the shoots came to a halt.

The producers implemented a new rule to not release a film on OTT until it completed its theatrical run for a certain period. The producers want the big-budget flicks to hit the OTT platforms only after the completion of 10 weeks which is eight weeks for medium-budget films. Only a handful of movies will get benefited from this new rule as it will work against the majority of the small and medium budget films. Some producers raised many questions about the same. Now, the producers are re-thinking the strategy.

On the other hand, the remunerations of some of the big stars have become a cause of concern for the producers. The star heroes and directors are not ready to take a cut in their remunerations despite the film industry's dismal functioning. Taking a cue, many character artistes are also demanding hefty paychecks, putting the producers in a spot.

Senior producer Chalasani Aswani Dutt, however, lashed out at his colleagues for demanding reduction of remuneration by stars saying that it would comprise a niggardly 3-5 per cent of the total production cost. He said those who had caused the prevalent confusion were responsible for the sorry state of affairs. A few others too joined the chorus with him.

Feeling hassled, the producers have even gone to the extent of going on a strike from August 1 so that they will have the control back on these matters. The Active Telugu Producers Guild announced three different committees to discuss the existing issues and find practical solutions to them.

Time will tell, to what extent this will help the producers!