About six Telugu movies are slated for release on August 15. It is a big number, considering the current political chaos in Andhra Pradesh. But that is just one side of the story. None of these movies figure a big star (excluding Aadishankara in which actor Nagarjuna plays a small role).

Films starring big ticket heroes such as Chiranjeevi, Pawan Kalyan, Balakrishna, Ramcharan and Junior NTR will have little chance of release in the foreseeable future, as a result of the highly volatile political environment. Pawan Kalyan-starrer Attarintiki Daaredi , which reportedly made a record business of Rs 75 crore, and Evadu starring Ramcharan (a Rs 30-40 crore film) were scheduled to release early this month. But the producers deferred the release dates indefinitely as integrationists have threatened to stop their screening. They were upset at Chiranjeevi (brother of Pawan Kalyan and father of Ramcharan) refusing to quit the Congress Government.

Small producers are both happy and sad. They are happy because theatres are available for screening and sad because agitations are keeping people away from theatres.

Industry impact

Though small in number, Telangana technicians have started their own film chamber, breaking away from the AP Film Chamber of Commerce in order to voice their grievances.

The new breed of film-makers hopes that the birth of Telangana could provide scope for sensible film-making and have started calling the Telangana film industry as Deccan cinema.

“If Deccan cinema becomes reality, we can expect a change. If Telangana film industry becomes a poor copy of Tollywood, it is doomed. New producers have to emerge from the region. Makers (directors) are already there,” film director Mahesh Kumar Kathi says.

While it is unlikely that the industry would pull out investment from Hyderabad considering its advantages, Seema-Andhra might look at Visakhapatnam as an alternative destination. Ramanaidu family has already built a studio in the beach city.

On paper it looks like there won’t be any change for the Telugu film industry after the bifurcation. But the division could result in significant changes over a period of time.

People immediately draw attention to Bollywood, which has emerged as the headquarters for Hindi film industry though the country has several others Hindi-speaking States. There is, virtually, no other place except Mumbai where Hindi films are made.

Tollywood, or the Telugu film industry, is positioned slightly differently. Majority of directors, actors and other technicians hail from Seemandhra region. Big money too belongs to this cash-rich region.

In fact, it was the surplus money from the Green Revolution areas that built the Telugu film industry. The money first flew to Madras, the then capital of the South Indian film industry, and then to Hyderabad after Telugu film industry began to move to Andhra Pradesh in the early 1980s. Today, Tollywood makes 140-170 films a year and has emerged as the second largest after Hindi in terms of number of films produced. It’s another story that majority of them are small films that end up as flops.

Only a handful of families such as Ramanaidus and Allu Arvinds own two-thirds of 2,400 theatres, virtually controlling the film releases.

> kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in