Re-release Market is Lucrative, says Producer Shobha Rani
Premikudu, the Telugu remake of the Tamil hit, Kadhalan directed by Shankar. Now, the film joins the list of old blockbuster movies re-releasing in theatres. Director S. Shankar's storytelling, not to mention Prabhu Deva's mindblowing dance to the timeless melodies of A. R. Rahman still resonates with the audience. SP Balasubramaniam's unforgettable dance performance is the perfect icing on the cake.
Now, Tollywood producer Shobha Rani is re-releasing ‘Premikudu’ starring Prabhu Deva and Nagma on May 1 to cash in on the re-release mania in the two Telugu states. She is behind the release of several Telugu movies which were dubbed from Tamil.
Talking about her comeback to the industry after a hiatus, Shobha Rani says, “Re-release market is lucrative. We already tasted success after re-releasing Kollywood star Suriya’s film ‘Surya S/O of Krishnan’ in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and realized that we can re-release Tamil dubbed movies if the film is a ‘cult’ classic with terrific musical score. Most importantly, it should not have been screened on the small screen. Our film, ‘Premikudu’ is not just an engaging love story, but also boasts of chartbusters like ‘Mukabla’, ‘Oorvasi’ and ‘O Cheliya’ which are still lingering in the minds of Telugu listeners,” she informs. The songs are among the trending tracks for reels on instagram too.
It is worth mentioning here that, Shobha Rani had made a mark by dubbing many superhit Tamil films which struck gold at the Telugu box office. She released big ticket movies like Kamal Haasan’s ‘Dasavaratharam’, Vijay’s ‘Thuppaki’, Ajith Kumar’s ‘David Billa’ and ‘Roudram’ to cement her place in the dubbing industry. “We bought Tamil hits for anywhere between Rs 1 crore to Rs 11 crores per film and released them after huge promotions. We used to make profits since Telugu audiences loved to watch unique Tamil films,” she points out.
On why quit the dubbing business, she explains, “Dubbing business has become a risky proposition due to various reasons and we had to slow down a bit. For instance, when we bought dubbing rights of a Tamil film, it was all inclusive like theatrical, satellite and digital rights and we used to cover up our investments in various forms. But now, we get only theatrical rights for a hefty sum and if audiences don’t show up to theatres, we are in a mess,” she laments.
With Tollywood big guns like Suresh Babu, Dil Raju and Sunil Narang entering the dubbing industry and buying Tamil movies for fancy sums, she says it was hard for her to compete with them. “Medium range producers like me can’t compete with them since they are cash-rich and also own theatres, so I had to back out a bit," she adds.
Talking about her future projects, Shobha Rani says she is planning to re-launch her production house by making a big budget straight Telugu film with a Hindi director. "By June, we will be announcing a big project," she signs off.