Mana stars rule Hindi television

What if Telugu films are blamed for being too main stream and increasingly catering to the masses and what if the films haven’t bagged a national award in some time? Telugu films starring top heroes replete with drama, action and everything else that makes it an out and out formula fare, are riding high on success across India, albeit on television.

In the course of flipping through various Hindi channels, haven't you come across Telugu stars mouthing Hindi punch lines, bashing up goons besides dancing with pretty damsels? Almost 10 to 12 Telugu mainstream films are screened daily on 50-odd Hindi channels on a daily basis. Apparently, leading Telugu stars have become house-hold names to pan-Indian small screen viewers and their popularity is counted next only to B-town stars. Apart from a handful of Hindi films being shown on these channels, it is the dubbed versions of action films starring ‘mana’ top heroes that are selling like hot cakes, and in turn have ushered in a new source of income for beleaguered Tollywood producers - to the tune of more than 50 crore per annum. New generation stars Mahesh Babu, Ram Charan, NTR, Pawan Kalyan, Prabhas and Ravi Teja continue to sway national viewers with their dancing and dare-devil stunts. These films garner more than theatrical collections (even though dubbed Telugu films get released in cities like Mumbai and Delhi as well as smaller centres like Bengal, Bihar and Rajasthan) from television industry. And, distributors end up recovering major portion of their investments through various channels, thanks to popular channels like Sony, Zee and Star, Colors and UTV and other 45-odd channels that invest more than 50 crore to procure dubbing rights of Telugu movies every year. A few companies like Gold Mine Telefilms, Venus Films and Duggal Movies are doling out hefty sums for the rights, and Telugu producers are laughing all the way to the bank.

The popularity of Telugu films dubbed into Hindi seems to be only on an upward swing as the rates have shot up by 10 to 12 times in the last six to seven years. Back then a film was worth just around Rs 20 to 30 lakh, but now the cost has gone into crores as the demand for star-studded Telugu films has gone up manifold.

Telugu films with top stars in the lead roles are bought on day of muhurat itself, for dubbing and television rights. “Although we release dubbed Telugu films in cities and small towns, theatrical collections are restricted to 10% of our investment, whereas we bank on top TV channels and repeat telecasts to recover our big investments. But we think that rates should come down a bit since it’s becoming increasingly difficult to break-even these days," says Mani Shah, Chairman, Gold Mines Telefilms. "I vividly remember buying Hindi dubbing rights of Telugu films for 20 lakh few years ago but now we are doling out in crores," Shah opines.

The number game gets a whole new meaning on television. Even though, Pawan Kalyan is numero uno star in T-town, yet across the nation his arch rivals are Mahesh Babu, Ram Charan, NTR, Allu Arjun who are ahead of power star since their Telugu films get a better price tag in their dubbed version. For instance, Mahesh Babu stands tall as his '1: Nenokadine' cashed Rs 4 crore. It is followed by Ram Charan Tej, whose 'Yevadu' fetched 3.5 crore and NTR’s ‘Temper’ which got Rs 3 crore. Allu Arjun-starrer ‘Race Guram’ secured Rs 3 crore, but the biggest T-town hit ‘Attarintiki Daaredi’, fetched just Rs 2.5 crore.

Mahesh’s ‘Dookudu’ has fetched a good deal in Hindi dubbing market. Producer-director MS Raju attributes this to Mahesh Babu’s national popularity, his good looks and charisma.

"No prizes for guessing, if Mahesh is leading the pack. He is on par with B-town stars like Aamir and Hrithik and a few of his national endorsements have given him an edge. Surely, Pawan is undisputed top star of T-town, but maybe he couldn't connect to Indian viewers as much as his counterparts. However, he can soon break this jinx," says Raju.

"The Hindi dubbing rights money is like a god-sent boon for Telugu producers as it contributed to our returns on the big investments a bit," says leading producer Bandla Ganesh, who pocketed big sums for Hindi dubbing rights of his movies like ‘Baadshah’, ‘Temper’, ‘Govindudu Andarivadele’.

"Rates should go up further as the popularity of Telugu stars is expanding by the day, which is evident when you watch 8 to 10 dubbed movies being telecast on various Hindi channels. The rates should match the popularity of Telugu action stars," he adds.

Although, Telugu producers are happy to add extra bucks to their pockets, they are unhappy with the poor promotion and odd and whacky Hindi titles and also inferior dubbing quality that is gradually killing the charm. “That’s not true; we spend more than 10 to 15 lakh for high-end dubbing quality with best of teams. However, we cannot do much about the odd titles since most of regular titles are registered. We have to spin off with a prefix or suffix and they are working,” says a source, close to Manish of Gold Mine.

The popularity of Telugu films dubbed into Hindi does not do much for the non-star filmmakers, comedies or simple romantic dramas, “Top Hindi Channels demand star studded action adventures, so we give priority to star studded movies but we procure other genres once-in-while,” sums up Ghanta Srinivasa Rao, another distributor who bought more than 70 Telugu films.

The ever-increasing demand for the same formula bound Telugu potboilers on Hindi television channels does change our perspective that probably this kind of cinema does have its big chunk of audience, not just in the Telugu speaking states but across India.