Tollywood next cut: target huge expat markets
Movies are the opium of the masses (apologies to Karl Marx). ‘Movies for every mood’ is the dictum for most Telugus. To satiate the huge entertainment appetite of the approximately eight crore Telugu speaking populace, Tollywood (guesstimated at Rs 1,000 crore) churns out an average 220 movies-a-year, more than Bollywood. This includes about 70 dubbed movies from Tamil, English, Malayalam and Hindi. Unlike their Kannada brethren, Telugus are not linguistically xenophobic when it comes to movies.
The state hosts the eponymous studio of Telugu movie mogul D Rama Naidu (who holds the Guinness record for producing the highest number of movies individually). In the nine-month period this fiscal, 80 movies have already hit the halls. However, Tollywood’s production costs are high, points out D Suresh Babu, a leading producer and distributor.
Policy has had its impact on Tollywood, which made a turnaround after hitting a rough patch. It was the Telugu Desam government under founder president NT Rama Rao, an icon of Telugu cinema, which dealt a blow with a slab system of taxes as high as 40% on movie theatres. This made screening an unprofitable business, forcing many halls to shut down or convert into commercial complexes or godowns. During N Chandrababu Naidu’s regime, the industry’s efforts for correction didn’t work. It was the not so movie-friendly YS Rajasekhara Reddy who replaced the slab system with a tax on tickets. This came as a relief for exhibitors and producers. “Shutting down of theatres has almost stopped,” says Vasiraju Prakasam, senior film journalist.
Piracy, a universal bane, has eroded nearly 50% of the industry’s business value. “But it’s not as bad as Bollywood. Pirated VCDs of Telugu movies are available at the end of the second week of a movie release,” says Suresh Babu. 2,500 piracy cases have been booked. “We asked the government to turn all video libraries into licensed ones so they rent only originals, and to set up a special court to try video piracy cases, which the industry would fund,” he adds. Vasiraju says that the AP Film Chamber of Commerce and the Telugu Film Producers Council has set up squads to check piracy, with the police actively cooperating and fans clubs of stars pitching in as well.
The glamour of movies still lures lucre. “Funding for big movies, with big names is no problem with many banks and financial institutions coming forward. But financiers and producers of dubious background spoil the show,” rues Suresh Babu.
It’s time now to target expats in the US, Gulf, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka. “We must benchmark ourselves with global standards. We can even dub Telugu movies into, say, German or French under the Bollywood banner. Also, we need more quality film institutes to train people,” avers he. Well that’s the next cut.
The state hosts the eponymous studio of Telugu movie mogul D Rama Naidu (who holds the Guinness record for producing the highest number of movies individually). In the nine-month period this fiscal, 80 movies have already hit the halls. However, Tollywood’s production costs are high, points out D Suresh Babu, a leading producer and distributor.
Policy has had its impact on Tollywood, which made a turnaround after hitting a rough patch. It was the Telugu Desam government under founder president NT Rama Rao, an icon of Telugu cinema, which dealt a blow with a slab system of taxes as high as 40% on movie theatres. This made screening an unprofitable business, forcing many halls to shut down or convert into commercial complexes or godowns. During N Chandrababu Naidu’s regime, the industry’s efforts for correction didn’t work. It was the not so movie-friendly YS Rajasekhara Reddy who replaced the slab system with a tax on tickets. This came as a relief for exhibitors and producers. “Shutting down of theatres has almost stopped,” says Vasiraju Prakasam, senior film journalist.
Piracy, a universal bane, has eroded nearly 50% of the industry’s business value. “But it’s not as bad as Bollywood. Pirated VCDs of Telugu movies are available at the end of the second week of a movie release,” says Suresh Babu. 2,500 piracy cases have been booked. “We asked the government to turn all video libraries into licensed ones so they rent only originals, and to set up a special court to try video piracy cases, which the industry would fund,” he adds. Vasiraju says that the AP Film Chamber of Commerce and the Telugu Film Producers Council has set up squads to check piracy, with the police actively cooperating and fans clubs of stars pitching in as well.
The glamour of movies still lures lucre. “Funding for big movies, with big names is no problem with many banks and financial institutions coming forward. But financiers and producers of dubious background spoil the show,” rues Suresh Babu.
It’s time now to target expats in the US, Gulf, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka. “We must benchmark ourselves with global standards. We can even dub Telugu movies into, say, German or French under the Bollywood banner. Also, we need more quality film institutes to train people,” avers he. Well that’s the next cut.
posted by musicm at 9:22 PM
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