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Financiers chary of funding Tollywood town superstars flicks
It’s quite an unusual situation for T-town superstars like Pawan Kalyan, Mahesh, NTR Jr, Allu Arjun and Ram Charan since big producers who are making films with them have to reportedly pump in 15 to 20% of the total budget as corporate houses and financers are lending only 80% after raising various doubts about the viability of the said project.
Hyderabad: It’s quite an unusual situation for T-town superstars like Pawan Kalyan, Mahesh, NTR Jr, Allu Arjun and Ram Charan since big producers who are making films with them have to reportedly pump in 15 to 20% of the total budget as corporate houses and financers are lending only 80% after raising various doubts about the viability of the said project.
“Just two years ago, it wasn’t like this and just name of a superstar was enough to get 100% finance without any questions,” says a leading producer who made films with stars like Prabhas, Pawan Kalyan and NTR jr. He, on condition of anonymity, adds: “Even corporate houses like Reliance, Eros International, Endomol, UTV who only fund top-5 Telugu star movies are also insisting on cost cutting, bounded script and timeline for completion.
Even after all these formalities, they are just lending 80% of the total budget, since they are reluctant to take risks,” he adds. With most of the private financiers turning producers, only a handful are in the business and have become selective about their investments. “We can’t blame corporate houses or financiers since cost of production has gone out of bounds in T-town, due to hefty remunerations of stars, directors and even composers.
So, the financiers are playing it safe and only putting money in zero-risk projects these days,” says producer N Padmini, who feels that stars have to put in an effort to rein in budgets and make it attractive even for financiers. “Already, a few corporate houses have stopped making Telugu films and some financers have turned producers, so only superstars can revive confidence in them by cutting down budgets,” she adds.
Though 100 per cent financing was happening during the heydays of Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna but now it’s a different scenario. “Films of legendary NTR, Krishna and ANR attracted 100 per cent finance and it continued even during the heydays of Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna, but present superstars are unable to guarantee success, so financiers are holding back,” says producer Prakash Reddy.
