The situation of the Telugu cinema business today is chaotic. Producers are unable to control the whims and fancies of the star heroes, despite having their own guilds and unions.
Budgets are ballooning into hundreds of crores, with almost eighty percent of the expenditure going toward the heroes’ remuneration and their luxurious demands.
If the collections don’t match expectations and the OTT rights fail to sell at the right price, the producers are doomed.
Yet, they continue to take huge risks solely based on the star power of the heroes. They sustain as long as they can and perish once done.
All these years, OTT deals somehow saved them, but now even films featuring big stars are finding it difficult to get buyers, as OTT platforms have fixed budget allocations and cannot purchase beyond their allotted limits for a given period.
In this context, it’s worth looking at what Rishab Shetty and Yash are doing in Kannada cinema. They spend on the making of the film and make everyone involved a partner in the project.
Depending on how the film performs at the box office, they share the profits among themselves. It’s actually a role model approach.
When everyone’s income is tied to the film’s success, no one demands unnecessary luxuries like chartered flights or expensive hotel stays.
Everyone stays grounded because their own earnings are at stake. The Kannada stars believe in their films wholeheartedly. They have faith that their content will do well.
In contrast, most Tollywood stars don’t seem to have faith in their own films. They work primarily for money, leaving the producers to take the fall.
Out of ten films, maybe one succeeds, but the heroes keep increasing their remuneration while producers continue to bear the burden and later cry over their losses.
There is more evidence to show that today’s Telugu stars lack confidence in their own movies.
Earlier, there were several big production houses such as Anjana Productions, Annapurna Studios, Geetha Arts, Padmalaya Pictures, Ramakrishna Cine Studios and Suresh Productions, many owned by top heroes themselves, which made hundreds of films.
But why aren’t these banners active anymore? It’s because the heroes no longer have faith in the film business itself.
Only a few, like Nani, are carefully making films with genuine passion under their own banners and investing some financial stake, similar to Yash and Rishab Shetty.
Producers, ideally, should be united to make things work properly, but their unity remains a myth. Usually, only those who don’t have a film in production at the moment turn up for meetings or protests.
When their own projects come up, they disappear from the cause and are busy appeasing the heroes and their demands. That is the unfortunate state of the Telugu film industry today.
