Tollywood on a high with big hits, business booms in US

Ch Sushil Rao / TNN / Feb 7, 2017, 08:12 IST

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Tollywood has had a great start to the year with star-studded movies becoming major hits.Not only in India, but collections even in the US have been soaring.

Tollywood on a high with big hits, business booms in US

Representative image.

HYDERABAD: Tollywood has had a great start to the year with star-studded movies becoming major hits. Not only in India, but collections even in the US have been soaring.
"It has been a great take off this year. Every sector of the film industry is happy," said former president of Telangana Film Chamber of Commerce M Vijayendar Reddy, who is an exhibitor (theatre owner) himself.
Chiranjeevi who returned to the screen after a 10-year sabbatical dished out his 150th film 'Khaidi No. 150' directed by V V Vinayak. The film, released on January 11, has done extremely well at the box-office. On January 12, Balakrishna-starrer 'Gautamiputra Shatakarni' released to packed houses.
While the two big releases were slated for Sankranti, there was no major problem. "Since the distributor was the same for both the films here, the two films had enough theatres to run in," an exhibitor said.

Sharwanand-starrer 'Sathamanam Bhavathi', released on January 14, also clicked at the box-office. Not just around Sankranti, but even after it Nani-starrer 'Nenu local' (released on February 3) made a mark.
According to film sources' estimation, collections of 'Khaidi No. 150' crossed 130 crore, collections of 'Gautamiputra Shatakarni' are at 80 crore and 'Shathamanam Bhavati' is going great guns with collections touching 30 crore already.
Commenting about the situation in the US around Sankranti, film trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted, "They (Telugu films) eclipsed all Hindi films including new ones." On January 16, he said, "It was an incredible extended weekend for Telugu films in US. The business of the three new films is 25.66 cr in US."K Ashok Kumar, member, Telugu Film Producers' Council, said, "One of the main reasons why these films have been a hit is that filmmakers are dishing out the right content after demonetisation."

About the Author

Ch Sushil Rao

Sushil Rao is Editor-Special Reports, at The Times of India, Hyderabad. He began his journalism career at the age of 20 in 1988. He is a gold medalist in journalism from the Department of Communication and Journalism, Arts College, Osmania University, Hyderabad from where he did his post-graduation from. He has been with The Times of India’s Hyderabad edition since its launch in 2000. He has also done an introductory course in film studies from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, and also from the Central University of Kerala equipping himself with the knowledge of filmmaking for film criticism. He has authored four books. In his career spanning 34 years, he has worked for five newspapers and has also done television reporting. He was also a web journalist during internet’s infancy in the mid 1990s in India. He covers defence, politics, diaspora, innovation, administration, the film industry, Hyderabad city and Telangana state, and human interest stories. He is also a podcaster, blogger, does video reporting and makes documentaries.

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