The release of Nandamuri Balakrishna's highly-anticipated film "Lion", which was slated to hit screens on 8 May, has been delayed by a week due to financial issues.
"Lion" was supposed to be released on 1 May, but was postponed by a week following the delay in post-production. Having overcome that, the makers of the film took the first copy to the Censor Board, which gave U/A certificate for the movie.
But the makers have pushed the release date by yet another week.
Reports suggest Rudrapati Ramana Rao, who is producing the film "Lion" under the banner Sri Lakshmi Venkateswara Cinema, had initially planned to produce the movie with a budget of ₹20 crore, but the production cost has shot up around 75 percent.
"Lion" has been creating positive buzz in the media ever since it was announced. Everything has been going right till now. The producer wants to cash in on the hype and craze of the film and recover production costs, along with a decent amount of table profit in the pre-release business.
The maker of "Lion" has reportedly quoted high prices for the satellite and distribution rights for different regions. Its theatrical rights for some areas have already been sold for a whopping price and the deal for remaining regions, including Nizam, is yet to be finalised. Reports suggest that buyers are not ready to shell out high amount of money, as they are not sure of returns.
"Lion" is the 98th film of Balakrishna, who is seen playing double role in the movie, as Godse and as Bose, while Trisha and Radhika Apte appear as his love interests. Prakash Raj, Chandra Mohan, Pradeep Rawat, Adithya Menon, Sravan, Ravi Prakash, MS Narayana, Ali, Posani Krishna Murali and Jayasudha are in supporting cast.
