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Two back to back flops of big films, starring Pawan Kalyan and Mahesh Babu, have left the Telugu film industry with an estimated loss of over ₹100 crore. Sardar Gabbar Singh, with Pawan Kalyan in the lead, was released in over 40 countries last month, hitting nearly 3,000 screens, the biggest release for any Telugu film.
Though the film grossed over ₹24 crore on day one, collections plummeted, emerging as one of the biggest disasters in the Telugu film industry. Produced and penned by Pawan Kalyan himself, it had left film distributors in losses.
“Bahubali gave a tremendous sky-high rise to Tollywood and now, SGS (Sardar Gabbar Singh) crashed it back into the underground,” veteran film director Ram Gopal Varma tweeted on the release day, expressing his disappointment on the film.
Mahesh Babu’s ‘Brahmotsavam’, released early this month, met with a still worse fate and received similar sarcastic remarks from Ram Gopal Varma, who has 1.83 million followers on Twitter.
Huge budgets Both the films were made with budgets beyond ₹50 crore and were reportedly sold for over ₹100 crore each, considering the stardom of the two stars.
The flops had dashed the hopes of the two stars, who share the top two slots in the Telugu film industry, to expand their market to Bollywood and Kollywood. While Pawan Kalyan released the film in Hindi, Mahesh Babu wanted to tap the Tamil market. Both their plans went awry.
Small producers are happy as the two flops freed the theatres to let their films screened. Exhibitors block almost all the theatres in prime locations for films of top stars, leaving the small film makers with theatres in the peripherals.
Too much hype “Too much hype was created in both cases resulting in huge disappointment for fans and general viewers. The two actors, who generally keep away from media promotions, spent a lot of time appearing on various channels in a bid to rescue the films,” a film director commented, wishing anonymity.
But, the year so far, has seen two hits. Oopiri (starring Nagarjuna and Karthi) and Nannaku Premato (Jr NTR) registered comfortable success.
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