Due to the bad turn out and lack of promising Telugu films, single screens in Telangana are going to remain closed for a fortnight.
Summers essentially mark a time when cinephiles expect several high profile Telugu films to drop in theatres as production houses line up their star-studded projects in order to cash in on the holiday rush. However, this has been different in the summer of 2024 which has seen only one blockbuster film being Tillu Square. With other low and medium budget films failing to attract audiences and with the highly anticipated big budget film Kalki 2898AD postponing its release to stay away from election season, both single screens and multiplexes had recorded poor business.
These will be closed approximately from May 15 for two weeks said Vijayender Reddy, president of the Telangana Film Exhibitors Association. In his statement he noted that every single screen in various towns across the state have decided against screening any movie just so as to cope with losses they made. He disclosed that ‘even smaller centres incur an expenditure of ₹10-12k per day while cities like Hyderabad have expenses going up between ₹15k and ₹18k per day’. According to him, this income has dropped below ₹4k per day since movies failed attract viewership. If it remains closed per day an approximate loss is about ₹4k whereas if a movie is screened it may lose about ₹6k, he added.
Vijayender Reddy underscored that if any producer will come forward making an upfront payment as minimum guarantee theatre owners will agree to screen such movies.
Amongst Telugu films released on May 10th, Krishnamma was able to invite some audience during its opening week while Prathinidhi 2 or Aarambham remained lukewarm. There’s also another film called Raju Yadav which stars Getup Srinu, which has been slated for release on May 17th. On the same day, Baahubali: Crown of Blood animation series will start streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
Some mid-budget films including Gangs of Godavari featuring Vishwak Sen and Satyabhama that stars Kajal Aggarwal are set to hit the screens by May 31st.
