Tollywood's high stakes gamble

On a Sunday with deserted streets, as the country stayed glued to TV screens for the India-Pakistan World Cup match, Tollywood mandarins remained cocky about the box office prospects of some of its biggest projects. In the afternoon on a weekend, tickets were easily available for one of the most talked about Telugu movie that released three days back. The cricket fever is only set to move to a different level as the World Cup mania blends into the professional 20-20 league before it winds down on May 24.Reflecting the bullish mood, Sudheer Varma, who's currently directing Naga Chaitanya, Kriti Sanon starrer says, "Almost all the matches will be aired early in the morning since the tournament is happening in Australia and New Zealand. There will be some impact on days when India will be competing with other teams, which will make a dent on the revenues from the morning and matinee shows. However, compared to previous World Cup, the impact on revenues this time will be low."Contrast this with 2011,when Tollywood faced a similar situation and it turned out to be the worst summer spells at the boxoffice. In fact, back then, the release of NTR starrer Shaktihad to be advanced by a day to avoid a clash with the World Cup final on April 2, 2011. Except for films like Mr Perfect and 100% Love, none of the other films could withstand the mania ofthe World Cup and T20 tournament that spanned for four months. However, last year, despite more than 45 days of non-stop cricket, films like Race Gurram and Manam pulled the audiences back to the theatres.Prior to that, NTR���s Baadshah, Gunde Jaari Gallanthayindhe and Tadakha did exceedingly well at the box-office. This summer, Tollywood will see scores of medium budget films vying for a BO pie, along with seven big ticket films including Balakrishna���s Lion, Allu Arjun-Trivikram film, Rudhramadevi, Kick 2, Pandaga Chesko, Naga Chaitanya���s con drama and the biggest of themall, S S Rajamouli���s Baahubali.One estimate has it that around 350 crores is riding on big releases alone and even a slight change in their release dates will have a domino effect on the revenue of other films. While the World Cup matches end on March 28,filmmakers are dismissive about the threat from the T20 league matches that end on May 24. And that���s a far cry from the way things were a few years ago when fan frenzy, over the T20 cricket format,was at its zenith.���I believe producers have learnt to live with T20 matches since it���s an annual event; however, World Cup is still an area of concern and most filmmakers will be looking for a release date post the tournament," says producer Shobu Yarlagadda, adding, ���Right now, everyone���s priority is to look for an appropriate release date since we are all looking for a window of at least two weeks at the box-office.���Concurring with Shobu���s views, another producer, KL Damodhar Prasad says, ���I think the impact of cricket on Tollywood has diminished over the years. There���s too much of cricket these days, which has taken the zing out of the passion people have for the game.Except for few games in the World Cup, I don't think it���ll have a big impact on our films as such.���Putting things in perspective, Sudheer Varma says, ���At the end of the day,we can���t hold cricket as an excuse about why a film didn���t work at the box-office.The focus is always on getting a good release date where you can get good number of theatres.���