Filmmakers desperate to hit the screens

The flurry of announcements over the last two weeks has baffled some industry bigwigs, even as a few directors are understandably annoyed with such deadlines, given filmmaking is a creative job and can’t be spun around a specific timeline.

Director Ramesh Varma, whose upcoming movie Khiladi, starring Ravi Teja, is set to clash with Nandamuri Balakrishna’s upcoming movie BB2 on 28 May, is one of them. “The hurry to hit screens could have been avoided a bit this summer as filmmaking is not about reaching the goalpost (read ‘release date’) first. Rather, it’s a creative process, and every film evolves in its own space and time to ensure an exciting output to enthral movie buffs,” admits Ramesh. “Of course, I am game for the clash at the box office with other movies as I have solid content on hand and a few of my movies have competed with others movies in the past too. I think more than the producers, it is the distributors and exhibitors who are having the last laugh these days.”

However, distributor Abhishek Nama begs to differ. “May be exhibitors are very happy to have more films in their theatres, but not all distributors feel that way. In fact, I haven’t bought any movie till date though distribution areas are open. And that’s because the rates quoted by the producers are on the higher side, whereas I wish to procure them at moderate rates. Personally, I wish star-studded movies do not clash on the same day as one movie could eat into the revenues of other one, which doesn’t augur well for the industry.”

Incidentally, Abhishek is also hopeful that producers and big stars will soon sit down and ensure at least a one-week gap between two big films, instead of just one or two days.

“As in Bollywood, where Hindi movies are planned for a whole calendar year-January to December- beforehand, Telugu film industry is also slowly catching up with the game plan, and I wish there will be more clarity in this aspect in the days to come,” adds Abhishek.

Some say aye and some, no!
Unfortunately, while the big names try to prolong their 15 minutes of fame, 10-odd smaller movies will have a tough time even seeking their spot in the sun, given the crowded atmosphere.

Vishnu Induri, who also plans to release his multilingual movie Thalaivi, starring Kangna Ranaut and Arvind Swamy in March or April, has a different perspective on the matter. Incidentally, he and his team are looking for a March release if everything falls in place given that they are confident about their content and are not worried about other releases.

“I don’t like to term it as a competition among stars as festivals such as Sankranti and Dussehra witnessed releases of multiple heroes at the same time. There are instances of two or three films doing well at the box office if the stories struck a chord with masses,” says Vishnu. “Also, it is even more important for producers and stars to cash in on the upcoming summer holidays now.”

In fact, Vishnu has other concerns about not rushing to release films. “Do you know how much producers are coughing up interest every month? It works out to about Rs 25 lakh to Rs 1 crore per month depending upon the scale of the movie,” he states while admitting that the situation is jam-packed a bit because of films that got struck during the pandemic lockdown and have now joined the race.

Filmmaker Ramesh Varma, who plans to shoot in the picturesque locales in Spain and Italy and is awaiting visas for himself and his unit members to start the journey for their film from 1 March, adds that logistics issues such as computer graphics (CG) work, artistes’ combination for shootings and permission for foreign locales have been getting on the nerves of the filmmakers. “It is true that a few films have issues of getting actors’ combinations right for shootings to meet the new deadline — the release date. Although we thought of going to the US initially, we changed our plans to keep up with the deadline. Besides, some CG work is pending for few slam-bang action episodes and lavish songs have to be shot. It is like running against time,” he rues.

Pretty actress Priyamani, whose films, Virata Parvam and Narappa, are set to hit the screens this summer, shares an actor’s perspective on the competition ahead.

“For most actors, the feeling of butterflies flying in the stomach is unavoidable even today, a night prior to the release. We are worried about how the audiences would receive our role and performance because we’ve put in a lot of effort and sweat into it,” she states. She also adds about how her co-actor in Virata Parvam, Rana Daggubatti, always wanted the film to hit the theatres, unmindful of delay. “He feels that the film is a perfect big-screen extravaganza. And now that the audiences are returning to the theatres, there is certainly a kind of festive mood in Tollywood.”