The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Tollywood thriving across the seven seas

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Wednesday, Apr 20, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Tollywood thriving across the seven seas

Suresh Krishnamoorthy

The market for Telugu films in the US is growing by leaps and bounds

Uppugunduru or USA!: No one like Chiranjeevi to pull the crowds. Photo: Satish H.

HYDERABAD: On April 22, fans of `Victory' Venkatesh will go ga-ga for that's when `Subhashchandra Bose' will hit the screens. It's not just Andhra. It will happen in Edison in New Jersey, Dallas, Detroit, San Jose and a half-a-dozen states in the US.

This holds good for other releases of crowd-pullers in the Telugu film industry. Films starring megastar Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, Venkatesh and Balakrishna do as well in overseas markets as in the native pockets.

In the last three years the market for Telugu films in the US has grown by leaps and bounds, actually by 25 times in terms of US dollars, from US $ 3,500 a movie to about US $ 1,00,000, said Prasad Potluri of a popular Telugu cinema portal.

Minimal compared to what Kollywood and Bollywood films get, but the fact that it is growing is very encouraging, he says.

Encouraging trend

The producer, D. Suresh, said there are 35 centres that screen Telugu movies including California, New Jersey, Virginia and Detroit. He says the US market may be small as of now but is confident of the potential. "It is picking up and the US apart, our markets in Dubai, UK, Australia and Malaysia are also picking up. It is very encouraging," he said.

"Apart from Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, Venkatesh and Balakrishna, hit films of other actors have also done well. However, it is a small market and does not contribute much to overall collections," said director Krishnavamsi.

Things are not all that rosy though, with piracy, spiralling prices of tickets and movie-buffs having access to DVDs within months of a film's release, cutting into exhibitor profits.

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