Nagarjuna's Officer producer admits failure at box office, denies forcing distributors to buy rights

Producer Sudheer Chandra, who has bankrolled Officer with Ram Gopal Varma, has admitted that the Akkineni Nagarjuna starrer is a flop at the box office, but denied forcing anyone to buy its distribution rights.

The deadly combo of Akkineni Nagarjuna and Ram Gopal Varma had created a lot of curiosity and hype for Officer. Trade experts had predicted that it would make good business at the ticket counters. But the movie opened to mixed response and made a poor collection at the box office on the first day. The word of mouth badly affected its collection over the weekend, making it a big disaster at the box office.

It was reported that Subramanyam had financed Rs 1.30 crore for the production of Officer. Instead of returning his money before its release, Ram Gopal Varma had given its theatrical rights of Andhra Pradesh. It was rumoured that the makers had forced him to buy its theatrical rights. Having suffered huge losses, he had decided to commit suicide.

The producers of Officer, who were heartbroken over its failure at the box office, were disappointed with the reports in the media. Sudheer Chandra took to Twitter on Monday to clear the air surrounding it. In a long note, the producer slammed the reports, saying, "We admit that the film has failed both creatively and financially but we did not force anyone to buy the movie and only in few areas we sold Officer for normal rates."

Here is the open letter of producer Sudheer Chandra posted on Twitter.

Dear Media,

All those trade numbers that you are claiming that I've sold the film at are all false. Film failed and we are not denying that. Film failed both creatively and financially.. everyone involved with film emotionally, creatively and financially are at loss which can't be denied.

Except the five districts in Andhra Pradesh, which was sold at a mere MG price because of the buyers involvement in the film from earlier, we ourselves released the film rest of the world..

We forced no one to buy this film nor lured anyone into buying it any given point.. the same media which claimed the film has no takers a week before the release now makes tall claims that we've sold the film at those nonsense prices putting us in profits..

Also there's no denying that there's lot of negativity prior to the release of the film. May or may not be because of the creative reasons.. end of the day, it's our duty to own up the film as makers and give it the best shot. Which we did.

There are many films being made and failing when the time comes... I would like to believe this is a special film for rgv, because of various reasons.. as far as creative is not concerned, Where I come in the picture, we had to fight unimaginable negativity towards the film to put it out there... efforts were fruitful as far as releasing it is concerned... film didn't work may be because... creative didn't work or people choose to ignore it no matter what or people have already decided it's a bad film.. there could be some thousand reasons why a film didn't work.. as far as we are concerned, it's just that the film didn't work.

Hence, I request people who are claiming that we've sold the film at the kind of numbers that are doing rounds in the media to do some fact check before saying it out..

I know it kind of gives a sadistic pleasure for the people concerned to say whatever they are saying about the economics of the film the way they are right now..... if only any of those were true I would be ok with it. You may attack a film creatively because a film would hurt your senses... but all those finance related false claims should be put to rest.

We are in this business to make films. More and more of them. Some day in future would be ours too.. some day in the past could've been ours.. till then... Have fun!

Amen!

Sudheer Chandra