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Tollywood has finally caught the attention of major production houses such as Reliance Entertainment, Viacom 18.
Anil Ambani controlled Reliance Entertainment has recently produced Bengali film Ganesh Talkies and another film named 'Boss' is on cards for release.
For Viacom 18, a joint venture between Viacom Inc and Network 18 Group, it has already completed a Bengali film with nationally acclaimed director Neeraj Pandey who has made Hindi films like A Wednesday and Special 26.
One of the prominent reasons for these corporate movie makers to flock to Tollywood is the fact that regional content is showing a major growth.
Both the parties—production houses and film makers—are seeing it as a welcome change because this will bring transparency into the business and more Tollywood films can be screened at multiplexes.
Speaking to Business Standard, Jayesh Muzumdar, regional business head at Viacom 18, said region is where the substantial growth is coming from and the scope to take it to the next level is immense.
“If you see FMCG companies they have done the same and our business is showing tremendous growth when venturing into regional cinema. While the film with Pandey is done, another film is in the scripting stage with big Bollywood film director,” said Mazumdar.
Corporates' interest in Tollywood has given a fresh lease of life over 30% of movies in Kolkata's film city were being produced by money generated by chit fund companies such as Saradha Group, which went bust recently. Film maker Anjan Dutta pointed out that it would create more scope for meaningful movies to be made. About Rs 100 crore every year was being pumped into the industry by such chit fund companies.
“If we want to see our industry thrive we need corporates. They know about the market and treat it seriously with utmost professionalism. A certain amount of clarity comes into the whole process which is the need of the hour,” he added by saying that the absence of corporates are making the existing few big producers to take undue advantage of monopoly in the industry.
According to Datta the corporate influx will result into more Tollywood films being screened at multiplexes which is the ultimate future. Reliance Entertainment which has also co-produced a another Bengali film?Boss? with popular actor Jeet is betting big on Tollywood.
According to Mahesh Ramnathan , COO at Reliance Entertainment, more such films are on the cards. The company has not set out any number of films to be made each year but it can easily touch 7-8 every year, indicates Ramnathan.
"We have done Bengali films which have won international awards, but now our focus is going to be more mass-oriented films, which cater to the urban and semi urban crowd. We want to have a firmer foothold in this market,” said Ramnathan.
A Bengali film roughly takes about Rs 1 to 3 crore. However, some films can surpass this range when it’s a multi starrer film.
While a large chunk of revenue for these films still comes from standalone movie halls, satellite rights are slowly but steadily increasing its pie to the total revenue earned.
