Corporates averse to invest in Telugu films

Hyderabad: Even though leading B-town corporate production houses like Reliance, UTV, Endemol and Eros International pump in thousands of crores of rupees into production of Hindi movies, they have tightened their purse strings as far as investing into production in T-town is concerned. They have just invested Rs 120 crore in a handful of films currently.

In fact, UTV has reportedly called a halt to production of films and busy revamping its Hyderabad team, while Endamol has disappeared post a debacle like “Anamika” (remake of Hindi hit Kahani). Even Reliance Entertainment, which was behind big hits like ‘Attarintiki Daaredi’ and “Manam” has just one film on hand and seems to have cut down on number of productions in Telugu.

“That’s not true. We have joined hands with producer Bhogavalli Prasad for our upcoming film starring NTR Jr being directed by Sukumar and we are discussing few more projects. So we are on track,” says Suresh of Reliance Entertainment.

Apart from setbacks which UTV and Endemol suffered, corporate houses insist on paying a big chunk of salary in “white” and demand a bound script. Such a stipulation has also affected their T-town plans since T-town stars and directors prefer to keep their remunerations under wraps and also like to improve upon scripts on the sets.

"In Bollywood, even big stars commit themselves to completing the film within a specific timeframe, but Telugu stars are reluctant to make such commitment. UTV has reportedly lost a big project to another producer following a top star, also a known face in Bollywood, declining to sign an agreement. The deal fell through,” adds the source. A middle-age star on condition of anonymity says, “I would do a film for corporate house if they come up with an offbeat or innovative project.

But, if they want to cash in on our star image with a potboiler to mint money, I would prefer a producer next-door.” Another reason for their limited exposure is that all these corporate houses want to make films with top five or six T-town stars and have no plans to promote concept movies as they usually do in Bollywood.

“Despite having strong financial muscle, I don’t know why these corporate houses are running after big stars instead of investing in concept movies,” wonders director Chandra Siddhartha. However, Eros International would be producing next film starring Balakrishna and also was in talks with Pawan Kalyan, he said.

By B V S Prakash