)
Tollywood (as the Telugu film industry is called), which is considered as the second largest film industry in the country next only to Bollywood, is now in a tight spot.
The reasons: Likely problems in outdoor shootings in and around Hyderabad till a new capital is established, besides taxation and other issues related to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states.
Hyderabad houses four film studios – Ramanaidu, Annapurna, Sarathi and Padmalaya, besides the Ramoji Film City, the world's largest film studio complex – as against one -- Ramanaidu Studio - in Visakhapatnam, which is in Andhra region.
All the five studios are run by the Andhra people.
'We are happy with yesterday's decision. However, what we are requesting the Telagana leadership is to initiate measures to avoid any untoward incidents that disrupt our shooting schedules. Tollywood has already been hit badly by high taxes. We expect the governments of both the states now to bring out common taxation laws,' says a Tollywood producer, requesting anonymity.
The Telugu film industry had incurred a loss of around Rs 7 crore a day from mid 2009 to early 2010 when the Telangana agitation intensified, creating hurdles including cancelling or rescheduling of film shootings.
Tollywood, which churns out close to 190 films with a total budget exceeding Rs 1,000 crore every year, relies mostly on studios in Hyderabad for huge settings, and on the Andhra region for lush-green fields and the large coastline as backdrops for duet songs and 'village' scenes.
'The state government collects an entertainment tax of 13 per cent on actual sale of a ticket for films made with shoe-string budgets, and 20 per cent on mega-budget movies. Now, with the bifurcation, we are afraid that the tax imposition would be a double whammy for us,' the producer reasons.
Geography-wise, Tollywood films' distribution areas are divided into Nizam, ceded (Bellary, Kadapa Anantapur, parts of Davanagere and Kurnool) and Andhra, with the Nizam territory (comprising all the Telangana districts) contributing over 45 per cent to Tollyood's total gross collections.
According to Ramesh Goud, an exhibitor in the Nizam area, though the Telugu film industry is largely dominated (70 per cent to be precise) by Andhra and Rayalaseema people, including all the major stars, producers and financiers, the reason for the Nizam area's dominance in terms of gross collections was driven by state-of-the art infrastructure set up in Hyderabad after the Telugu film industry completely shifted its base from Chennai to the state capital in the early 1990s, and the incorporation of Telangana accent and culture in these films, though mouthed by the Andhra actors.
'It's not that the Telangana region has no promising talent. There are some from the region who are now making a mark as heroes and character artistes on the silver screen. With the available infrastructure and affordable digital technologies, we are hopeful that regional films using the cast and crew available in Telangana would hit the box-office in the coming years,' he adds.
Fate of new movies
Meanwhile, the prospects of the soon-to-be-released two mega-budget movies ‘Yevadu' and ‘Attarintiki Daredi', starring Union minister of tourism Chiranjeevi's son Ramcharan Teja and younger brother Pawan Kalyan, are at stake.
Seemandhra people now have threatened to boycott these movies (combined budget of around Rs 70 crore) as they feel that Chiranjeevi, who hails from West Godavari district, has betrayed them by not prevailing upon the Congress high command to keep Andhra Pradesh united. While the release date of ‘Yevadu' has been postponed from July 31 to August 21, ‘Attarintiki Daredi' is scheduled to hit the screens on August 7.
'Given the sudden change of events, it is unlikely that the producers of ‘Attarintiki Daredi' would release the film according to the scheduled date. This could be considered as the immediate loss for Tollywood at the box-office,' a film analyst says, adding, one has to wait and watch to see how the prospects of Tollywood unfolds because of the bifurcation.
| Telangana | Andhra Pradesh | |
| Number of studios | 5 | 1 |
| Gross collections | 45% | 55% (including ceded) |
| Control on industry | 30% | 70% |
