Fancy pay cheques: Little left for filmmaking

Industry bigwigs are a worried lot, since T-town production costs have touched a new high in the last one year as new-age stars like Pawan Kalyan, Mahesh Babu, Jr NTR, Ram Charan, Allu Arjun and Prabhas have jacked up their fee and are reportedly pocketing anywhere between Rs 10-15 crore per film. Not to be left behind, even top-rung directors from Puri Jagannath to Trivikram Srinivas, and Srinu Vytla to V V Vinayak are reportedly demanding Rs 8-12 crore a film.

• Inexperienced producers in Tollywood send budgets into a tailspin
• 60% of budget goes to stars, directors and technicians
• A few big producers have gone bankrupt

Adding to it, A-list actresses like Tammanah, Samanta, Kaajal, Shruti Haasan, Nayanatara and Anushka are also demanding between Rs 1 crore and Rs 1.5 crore. “More than 60% of the specified budgets of Rs 35-40 crore are spent on paychecks to stars, actresses, directors, composers, cinematographers and other technicians, so the hapless producer is left with meagre funds to actually spend on the film.

Even viewership has dropped to 30% due to expensive ticket rates and rampant piracy; producers are going through tough times to recover their investments and already a few producers have gone bankrupt,” says Prassana Kumar, general secretary, Telugu Film Producers Council, who blames it on handful of inexperienced producers who sent budgets sky-rocketing.

“A few have even worked as production managers; so they don’t know how to make a film in a stipulated budget and are good in stitching up combinations. Some don’t even know the script of their films, until it release – that’s the pitiable state of T-town producer,” he laments. Even top producer Bogavalli Prasad, who made films with superstars Pawan Kalyan, Prabhas concurs, observes that remunerations have to be moderated.

“It’s high time remunerations should be moderated since the success rate has come down; it has become difficult to recover our big investments,” he adds. However, leading producer M S Raju has a different take on these remunerations: “Show business runs on demand and supply mode, so it’s unfair to blame stars. In fact, producers should assess the situation and spend.”

However, an industry source claims that Mahesh Babu was reportedly offered a Rs 20 crore pay packet for a film, by an inexperienced producer, but the star has kept it in abeyance. “If this unhealthy trend continues, except god nobody can save the T-town,” rues producer Natti Kumar.

By B V S Prakash