Hindi distributors bet big on Telugu stars

​Hyderabad: This year has been quite bountiful for Tollywood since Hindi distributors are digging deep into their pockets to bag Hindi dubbing rights of star-studded Telugu movies. Apparently, superstar Pawan Kalyan bagged the highest price of Rs 8 crore for his last release 'Sardar Gabbar Singh’,

followed by NTR Jr whose upcoming film 'Janata Garage' was bought for Rs 6.3 crore and Allu Arjun bagged Rs 5 crore for his latest action film 'Sarrainodu' and all the three overtook Mahesh Babu since his upcoming film 'Brahmotsavam' reportedly fetched only Rs 4 crore.

“Its true that we bought the Hindi dubbing rights of NTR Jr's upcoming film 'Janatha Garage' for a good price, but we can’t disclose the figure since action films draw huge eyeballs on Hindi channels than thematic films,” says Ghanta Srinivisa Rao, of Goldmines Telefilms, which has bought more than 150-odd films.

Any keen watcher of Hindi channels like Zee, Star, UTV, Sony and 40-odd Hindi channels, wouldn’t have missed watching a Telugu star mouthing Hindi punchlines and bashing up goons since almost 10 to 12 films are screened daily on 50-odd Hindi channels.

In fact, Mahesh, Allu Arjun, Ram Charan, NTR Jr, Pawan Kalyan, Prabhas and Ravi Teja swayed pan-Indian viewers with their dare-devil stunts and become household name across India.

“Telugu stars popularity among pan-Indian small screen viewers is growing by the day and surely price of Hindi dubbing rights has become a major source of income for Telugu producers these days,” adds Ghanta.

Even though these dubbed films are released in theatres in cities like Mumbai, Delhi and small centres like Bengal, Bihar and Rajasthan, Hindi distributors recover 80-90% of their investments through various channels.

By:BVS Prakash