Superstar Rajinikanth’s Telugu market seems to have taken a beating since there are no takers for Telugu dubbing rights of his upcoming movie ‘Jailer’. “The makers are demanding more than Rs 11 crores but Telugu distributors are unwilling to pay that price,” says a distributor, who cites his recent flops like ‘Darbar’ and ‘’Peta’.
He also admits that Rajinikanth was having a big market in two Telugu states and blockbusters like ‘Robo’, ‘Padayyappa’, ‘Chandramukhi’ and ‘Arunachalam” vouch for it. “His dubbing rights rates rose from mere Rs 25 lakhs for ‘Chandramukhi’ to Rs 22 crores for ‘Robo’. Later, ratings started to fall after flops like ‘Kala’ and ‘Kabali’, forcing distributors to rethink about buying his movies. Of course, Telugu the audience like his styles, and unique mannerisms but he hasn’t got the right script,” he adds.
With the market crashing, Telugu distributors could buy dubbing rights of ‘Jailer’ for Rs 5 to 6 crores. Hence Tamil producers have to revise their price, or it will be difficult for them to release in two Telugu states, he concludes.
