Fathers face off

“My problem is that the film is releasing in Tamil too and we don’t want to compete with Ajith’s film, so we are planning to release our film on August 11, as planned,” says Suresh Babu.

As on date, the talks have failed as Sudhakar Reddy and Bellamkonda Suresh are intent on this date and are instead asking Suresh Babu to drop his film. “Suresh Babu is already in the safe zone as his film has got good business and the Hindi satellite rights have also been sold for a whopping Rs 7 crore because of Rana’s fame. So he can release his film on a regular weekend,” says a source, who is in touch with all three producers.

“Jaya Janaki Nayaka and LIE need a good number of theatres to recover their money as the budget of both the films have gone a bit high. So they don’t want to change their date and at the most, one film may release a day in advance,” adds the source.

Interestingly, the middlemen even sent a proposal for a lottery, stating that the names that get picked should drop their releases. “Anil Sunkara agreed for it and went for the meeting, but the other two missed it and didn’t agree to the idea,” adds the source. 

Meanwhile, Bellamkonda Suresh is putting in all efforts to ensure that his son’s film releases without any hassles. “Though they announced the release date as August 11, Bellamkonda proposed to release his film one day in advance, so that he can screen in as many theatres on the first day to grab the revenues,” says the source.

The case has now gone to the Film Chamber to set up a truce between the producers. “Generally, during the festival season, three or more films do release and this is no different. But it is true that one film eats into the other film’s revenues. Ultimately, whichever film is good, stands out. There is also a chance that all the three films might do well if they are good,” says Gemini Kiran, president,  Telugu Film Producers Council.

The source reveals that till the time of writing this article, talks were still going on between the three teams involving all the three fathers. “The outcome may benefit all the three films,” says the source.