Tollywood's cash cow - Bangalore
Bangalore: First it was Bollywood. Then came Kollywood, and now it is the turn of Tollywood, which is wooing Bangalore which has a sizeable Telugu population ' for their slice of revenue. Telugu cinema's hottest stars are making a beeline to the city to promote their upcoming movies.
Allu Arjun (of Arya fame), one of the hottest stars in Telugu, was in Bangalore to promote his Telugu film Badrinath ' a first of its kind in recent times and a trendsetter for other stars from Tamil and Telugu. Industry watchers say other stars in south Indian films will follow suit, if the box-office record is any indication.
Though Allu Arjun reeled out the usual stuff like how he adores the city and the way he loves to groove in pubs, Badrinath's promotional event at a posh hotel on Lavelle Road is a clear indicator to how Bangalore has emerged as an important box-office collection point. The last big-budget Telugu movie that had a solid run in the city was Junior NTR's Brindavanam, which collected around Rs 1.2 crore in the first week of its release in Karnataka.
Interestingly, Bangalore and Karnataka are a bigger market for Telugu films than Rayalaseema and Nellore in Andhra Pradesh. The makers of Badrinath, one of the most-awaited films ever, do not want to miss out on the Bangalore market.
But it was Magadheera, a 2009 film, starring Ram Charan that collected a whopping Rs 6 crore in the city, which perhaps opened the floodgates. Sensing the potential of the Bangalore market, the producers and exhibitors have not looked back since. As for Tamil films, the market share has been going up every year, with the onslaught of young stars like Suriya and Dhanush.
'Magadheera made over Rs 6 crore in the box-office in city. Tamil films like Ghajini and Robot made about Rs 10 crore each. So Bangalore and Karnataka are no longer considered a backwater market. More stars will soon have their promotional events lined up for city exclusively,' says Vijay Kumar, leading distributor for Telugu. However, Allu Arjun is not the first Telugu star who came down to promote films in city.
'Venkatesh was here to promote Tulasi. Tamil star Vikram came for his Sethu years ago. However, many stars may not regularly come down, but top stars' films have always been promoted big time. Films of Rajinikanth and Kamal Hasan have always had premiere shows and promotional events. The trend in Hindi is different. Since the arrival of multiplexes, big exhibitors take Bollywood stars across the country. Such a set-up is still not there in Bangalore or Chennai,' says a film promoter.
Industry watchers say earlier only big Hindi films used to be marketed big time in Bangalore.
Vijay Kumar says things are changing according to market demands. 'Some stars are taking the initiative. But the time has come not to ignore Bangalore and Karnataka market. We have noticed that good films in any language will make money here.
The distinction of language is almost gone,' said Vijay Kumar.
Insiders see another reason. Film producers still believe that Chiranjeevi is the only big Telugu star in Karnataka. But the popularity has rubbed off on the 'Mega Family' that includes his brother Pawan Kalyan, son Ramcharan Teja and Allu Arjun.
'Big Telugu films do an average business of Rs 2 crore here. The asking rate for Badrinath is Rs 4 crore. However, the last one year for the family has been disastrous. Two films each of Pawan Kalyan and Allu Arjun and one of Ram Charan have failed. Badrinath has a reported budget of Rs 40 crore and therefore much is at stake,' said a well-known trade analyst.
Badrinath makes it, just in the nick of time
An agreement in the nick of time will ensure that Karnataka will get to watch the Rs 40-crore film, 'Badrinath', starring Telugu star Allu Arjun, on the day of its release.
This was doubtful until late on Thursday as Ramu, a local distributor and producer of Kannada films, had approached a city court seeking a stay on its release. The case was scheduled for hearing on Friday morning.
But a meeting between the advocates of Geetha Arts, the film's producer, and Ramu at the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) on Thursday resulted in a compromise. The producer returned Ramu's advance and will release the film.
If not for the compromise, Allu Arjun's costliest film would have had to wait for the court's verdict. And that's how it looked when Ramu went to court on Thursday.
Ramu is said to have paid Rs 55 lakh as advance for the film's distribution rights in Karnataka some months ago. This was done through Tagore Madhu, the executive producer of the film, who had worked with Ramu as co-producer some years ago. There was speculation that he still owed Ramu money.
The distribution rights was fixed at Rs 1 crore and later hiked to Rs 1.5 crore. Ramu agreed. However, a group of local distributors offered Geetha Arts Rs 3 crore. With big-budget Tamil and Telugu films doing exceptionally well in Karnataka, Geetha Arts smelt an opportunity and decided to distribute the film on its own.
That's when Ramu went to court and it looked like the film would not be released. It would have been a double blow for Allu Arjun as the release of the dubbed Tamil version has been put on hold due to technical reasons.
The makers of the film have also given an undertaking that the film will be released in only 24 theatres across Karnataka as per KFCC rules.
News Posted: 10 June, 2011
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