Sandalwood hopes to shrug off demonetisaton blues with two releases

BENGALURU: Producers of two Kannada movies have decided to go ahead with their release this Thursday, notwithstanding the negative market sentiment after demonetisation of high denomination notes. The release of one Kannada movie was put off last week.
With single screens, the mainstay of Sandalwood’s box office collections, reporting sparse audiences after the November 8 demonetization, the Kannada film industry is all nerves.While producers of John Jani Janardhan, which was to hit the screens on November 11, backtracked, the makers of Nataraja Service and Badmaash, slated to release this week, have decided to go ahead.
Nataraja Service distributor M Muniraju from Sri Veeranjaneya Productions said they can’t keep the release on hold as the after-effects of demonetization are likely to linger till December-end. Confirming the Sharan and Mayuri Kanti-starrer will be released in 200 theatres across the state, he said they are hopeful their product is strong enough to shrug off the negativity. The movie is directed by Pavan Wadeyar.
Stating that audiences are staying away from theatres as they don’t want to exhaust their limited stock of notes of smaller denomination, industry sources said film makers are planning to request the audience to turn up in groups so high denomination notes can be tendered.
“We hope the situation will improve soon,” NS Rajkumar, producer of Nataraja Service, said.
Sources also said the makers of Badmaash, directed by Akash Srivatsa with Dhananjaya and Sanchita Shetty in the lead roles, are also making all efforts to encourage people to go to theatres.
A veteran Sandalwood producer said, “Unlike other language movies, which can bank on multiplex screens, Kannada movies are more dependent on single screens, especially in the district centres. Also, multiplexes have the option of online payment, which not all single screens have. Theatres have been running empty since November 8 and the situation won’t be very different this week too. A few other language films, too, have postponed their release as the producers couldn’t settle their dues since last week,” he added.