Telugu films betting big overseas

The latest NTR-Kajal starrer is the first Telugu film to have released in over 200 screens overseas, an unprecedented feat for mana Tollywood, triggering record collections (over `4 crore* in just US reportedly). It isn���t an isolated case. The other big ticket releases in the year tell a similar story. Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu (SVSC) raked in a record `8.9 crore, Naayak grossed `2.69 crores*, and Mirchi raked in `3.48 crores* in just USA, all registering highest overseas collections and releases for the respective stars.
While SVSC and Naayak released in a little over 100 theatres, Mirchi opened in around 80 theatres. The bottom line ��� bigger the releases, greater the collections! Harish Sajja, an overseas distributor, believes the overseas market for Telugu films is growing incrementally. ���There is potential to get even bigger if we manage to tap into the Telugu diaspora who travel long distances to watch Telugu movies and their love for Telugu cinema is fuelling the collections. Sensing this, producers are going for bigger releases in a bid to maximise profits. The numbers say it all,��� shares Harish.
There seems to be a pattern in the kind of movies that find favour with the overseas audience which seems to be just as ���starstruck��� as the local audience. ���Unfortunately our movies don���t release with sub-titles, so by default, the stature of the star becomes imperative for the film���s success. However, clean comedies, family entertainers and rom-coms work much better than action entertainers,��� observes film distributor Sumanth Sunkara.
The unprecedented success of Allari Naresh���s Sudigadu indicates as much. ���The movie grossed over `1.10 crores* overseas, releasing in UK, Canada, Australia and Middle East, a record for Allari Naresh. It just goes to show the power of comedy,��� says director Bheemaneni Srinivas Rao.
The success of the Nikhil-Swathi starrer, Swamy Ra Ra in USA indicates that small movies too can draw crowds to the theatres. ���The movie opened in eight theatres first. But soon the word spread about the movie and by the second week the theatre count increased to 25 even as the ticket prices rose from $5 to $12 in some theatres,��� beams producer Chakri Chigurupati.
What is most surprising is that our stars hardly seem to make any effort to promote their movies overseas. Well, Prabhas did go for a special US tour after the success of Mirchi, but that���s more of an exception than the norm. Producer Sunitha Tati, who laments the apparent lack of vision in our stars, says, ���Akshay Kumar would make it a point to visit theatres in Washington, Canada and Virginia and meet the audience even if there were 20 people watching the movie. It makes a huge difference. Aamir Khan had at least two overseas visits ��� London and USA ��� in the 45-day-long pre-release promotional activity.
It creates a buzz about the movie and will definitely increase the footfall. In contrast, our stars never care about promoting movies abroad or think on the lines of increasing their market abroad. Even the producers are more worried about selling off the movie to the distributor for a good price than bother about increasing the market. The distributors who buy overseas rights don���t get support from the stars or the producer,��� says Sunitha, producer of the Navdeep and Swathi-starrer Bangaru Kodipetta.
The plight of small budget films is even worse as no distributor wants to take a bet on them. But filmmakers like Sunitha are exploring new avenues to tap into the overseas market pie. ���Small films have few takers, so we are negotiating with US-based cable broadcasters to release the movie through DTH, two weeks after the release. It will cover some costs and hopefully encourage the audience to probably watch our next movie in a theatre,��� adds Sunitha.
*All figures are approximate