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Time for serious business
SANGEETHA DEVI DUNDOO
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Corporates are eyeing the Telugu film industry, eager to have their share of the market. The entry of corporates is bound to change a few things in the industry.
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Corporates do have deep pockets, which in turn will shoot up our production costs. Apart from actors, even technicians will get paid well
Trendsetter Mahesh Babu and Amrita Rao in a still from ‘Athidhi’.
When the Mahesh Babu-Ileana starrer Pokiri broke a few records and ran to packed houses across cinema halls in Andhra Pradesh, the film drew attention. It caught the attention of national production houses that were eager to get a toehold in the Telugu film industry. While the production houses could vie for their share in the lucrative market, the Telugu industry would stand to up its scale of production and widen the possibilities of better overseas distribution.
Now, when Mahesh Babu’s next film Athidhi will open in cinema halls in a few weeks, it will have all the trappings one would expect of a big budget film that’s riding on a bankable actor. The marketing strategy, distribution pattern and overseas market will all be new. UTV, which has produced films like Rang De Basanti, The Namesake, The Blue Umbrella and Life in a Metro among others, has entered the Telugu film industry by acquiring the distribution rights of Athidhi. That’s just the beginning. The production house will be partnering with Indira Productions to co-produce two films starring Mahesh Babu to test waters in AP.
“There will be more films after the first two. We’ve witnessed the potential in Telugu films with the success of Pokiri. Athidhi will have a new marketing strategy - beginning from planned release of posters and trailers to overseas distribution. Telugu films have a lot of potential abroad, which has been untapped until now,” says Suniel Wadwa, associate vice president, distribution, UTV Motion Pictures. UTV also has plans for Tamil films. It has co-produced the soon-to-be-released Kannamoochi Enada with Radhika’s Radaan Mediaworks.
Superstar in animation
Meanwhile, Adlabs is expected to announce projects for the Telugu film industry. Its entry into the industry through Aggi, a dubbed version of RGV’s Aag, was a forgettable debacle. This biggie has already co-produced Tamil films (Kreedam starring Ajith and Trisha with Sujatha Cine Arts being the recent one) and in production is an animation film on Rajnikanth called Sultan, the Warrior (with Ocher Films spearheaded by Rajnikanth’s daughter Soundarya).
The film will be released in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and English. In AP, Adlabs is also looking at revamping cinema halls apart from opening multiplexes (the first one will be in Hyderabad).
The entry of corporates, for one, will bring in transparency, believes producer Manjula of Indira Productions. “Our industry has always had the reputation of finishing projects on time and being disciplined. Added to this, now you can expect more transparency in the method of functioning and broadening of horizons for the overseas market,” she says.
The studio system or the corporate method of functioning caught on swiftly over the last few years in the Hindi film industry. Better marketing strategies, widening of overseas distributions, payments in cheques, insistence of a bound script before a film went on floors were some of the advantages. What raised a few eyebrows was the eventual star system that the studios seem to be succumbing to. For instance, Priyanka Chopra has inked a three-film deal with UTV and Akshay Kumar a four-film deal with Adlabs for a whopping sum.
“Let’s face it. Corporates do have deep pockets, which in turn will shoot up our production costs. Apart from actors, even technicians will get paid well,” reasons producer Suresh Babu. He also points out the need to distribute regional films abroad under the common tag of ‘Indian cinema.’ “For a foreigner, Shah Rukh Khan, Rajnikanth and Chiranjeevi are Indian actors. People abroad have heard of the term Bollywood and associate it with Indian films as such. It is imperative to take our films too as Indian films rather than Telugu and Tamil abroad. Talking of distribution, we also need to tap the huge Telugu population that lives in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu,” he sums up.
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
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