The selfishness of Suresh Babu is being discussed widely in Tollywood. It is known that Suresh Babu has been saying that it is the end of the theatre system for quite a long time. When the first wave of the corona was at its peak, he said that the theatres were going to end in another 2-3 years. No exhibitor condemned his words.
The theatres were closed down during the second wave of the pandemic. No one understood when they would be opened. There were also doubts whether the audience would come to theatres even if the full occupancy is given. At that time, the producers of "Tuck Jagadish" were worried about getting their investment blocked. As they got a good OTT offer, they sold out.
At that time Sunil Narang, who is one among the big four in the industry with a huge number of theatres in hand, supported a protest from exhibitors against "Tuck Jagadish" producer and hero Nani for choosing to release directly on OTT. Sunil Narang was also a close associate of Suresh Babu.
It should also be underlined that the film "V" was sold out to OTT in a similar way during the first wave and no fuss was made at that time as Dil Raju, another one among the big four, was the producer of that film. There was also an excuse that the theatres were completely shut down.
But Suresh Babu's "Narappa" was again sold to an OTT platform as a direct release for an interesting price, despite the theatres running good after the second wave. Nobody raised their voice.
Now freshly Suresh Babu has sold out Drushyam2, a Malayalam remake film that was made with reasonable budget as a direct release to OTT. These days, the audience are coming to the theatres. But still, since the OTT is paying good for direct release, Suresh Babu opted for it instead of risking it at the theatres.
So, what does it mean? The big four are feeling that the other producers should release the films in theatres but that rule will not be applied to the films in which these fours are either partners or indirectly involved in financial matters.
Exhibitors are silent now as majority of theatres in Naizam are under the control of Suresh Babu.
Kiran Sharma
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