20 FILMS IN 40 DAYS!

 It is raining movies in Tollywood now. Dubbed, straight, multi-starrers, comedy, action, masala and urbane cinema will compete with one another at the BO this season, with 20 films lined up for release in the next 40 days, making it the biggest movie carnival season ever. Trade pundits cite the upcoming cricket and exam season in March as the reason for the rush. 
                                         

Nandini Reddy, director of the Nani and Nitya Menon starrer “Ala Modalaindi” says that though she’d ideally want a ‘safer’ single movie release, she has no choice now. “In the week I release my movie, there are two more likely to hit the screens. It is not an ideal situation but a lot of movie makers have queued up to release their movies. A few make movies with finance taken at a heavy interest rate which keeps piling up. World cup and exams do have an impact on the business to an extent and so now is the best time. Since, the longevity of movies in theatre has come down, there is a chance of getting good screens,” she says. 
                              

 Nagarjuna, Rana, Siddharth, Balakrishna, Ravi Teja et al have releases this season, while Sumanth, Vishnu Manchu, Varun Sandesh, Nani, Allari Naresh too have movies coming up in the next month and half. There are Tamil and Kannada dubbed films into Telugu which are slated for release this month. Mahi, producer of the Varun Sandesh starrer “Kudurithe Kappu Coffee” who plans to release his love entertainer a week before Valentine’s Day, is however confident that a few who announced their release date might cancel. “Since the past six months, a lot of movies announced release dates and postponed at the last minute. Even if a film is bad, the audience won’t watch it. That’s why filmmakers are not worried about competition, but availability of theatres,"”Mahi says. 
                           

Every day, film makers are brainstorming to create events and occasions to grab attention and create hype. Ram Gopal Varma’s “KSD-Appalraju” will lock horns with Nagarjuna’s “Gaganam”. RGV’s nephew Sumanth Varma who is co-producing the film is confident, “Sankranti usually sees lots of biggies lined up for release. This year the number’s slightly bigger as a few films got postponed due to the strike. Each genre has its own audience and we are not scared of any film releasing at the same time.” 
                                   
This Sankranti five films hit the screens. The following week there will be another three and four more by the end of this month. “There are 1,500 theatres across the state and due to such heavy competition a movie will be out of theatres after the very first week if collections are bad. Movies like “Ragada” and “Nagavalli” which are playing in theatres now, will not have any screens due to the heavy rush. Filmmakers must draw crowds in the first week. Also earlier if a film collected Rs 5 crore in the first week, it used to rake in Rs 20 crore by the time it left theatres which is not the case now. Once exams and world cup start, footfalls in theatres will lessen,” says Vijandar Reddy, exhibitor and President of the Telangana Film Chamber of Commerce. 
With one release every two days, it is surely a visual feast for movie buffs while our superstars get set to woo the audience in the biggest BO battle ever.