No Telugu film shoots for 4th day; "Pushpa 2" among upcoming films affected

Telugu film shoots remained suspended for the fourth day on Thursday even as leading producer Dil Raju made it clear that they don't intend to stop shootings for months. The gloomy picture of film industry is unfolding with the shooting on hold in Hyderabad.

Though big budget South Indian films such as Jr NTR-Ram Charan's RRR, Yash's KGF: Chapter 2 and Kamal Haasan's Vikram did very well but majority of films failed to make an impact at the box office.

Even Bollywood films are facing the ironic prospect though Kartik Aaryan's Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 and Varun Dhawan-Kiara Advani-starrer JugJugg Jeeyo remained exception. Several bid budget films including Ranbir Kapoor's Shamshera could not reverse the trend.

After a meeting of the Telugu Film Chambers, Dail Raju said that he has no personal agenda and that he is working only for the good of the industry, which has been facing uncertain future after the pandemic shut down across the country.

Dil Raju, who is heading a committee of producers formed by Film Chamber, said he had no intention of keeping the film shoots on hold for months together.

The producer said the Film Chamber has constituted four committees to address the problems faced by Tollywood. The committees are working on issues relating to OTT, VPF charges, revenue percentage, wages of the film artists and cost of production.

Changing Scenario

"All producers have placed a responsibility on my shoulders. I have no personal agenda. I am working for the sake of the cinema," he said.

Another leading producer C. Kalyan said film shoots were stopped indefinitely to resolve the issues. He denied that there were any differences among producers. Kalyan said both the Producers' Council and the Active Telugu Film Producers' Guild (ATPG) were working with the same aim.

ATPG was the first to announce its decision to halt the film shoots. The Film Chamber of Commerce on Sunday backed its decision.

Producers' Version

The Film Chamber said they will sit down and discuss the problems and the shoots will not resume till they find a solution.

Its statement read, "Post-Pandemic with the changing revenue situations and increasing costs, it has become important for producers to discuss all the issues we are facing as a community of filmmakers. It is our responsibility to better our ecosystem and ensure that we are releasing our films in a healthy environment. In this regard, all members of the Guild have voluntarily decided to withhold shootings from August 1st 2022 to sit in discussions until we find workable resolutions."

The apex body felt that the Telugu film industry is passing through a situation wherein producers, distributors, exhibitors and all others are not happy.

It is currently discussing various issues faced by them to decide measures to be taken to bring the film industry back on track. The consultations will involve all 24 crafts of the film industry.

The producers are worried over issues like drop in patronage in cinema theaters, cinema ticket prices, new releases on OTT and increasing production cost.

The action of the producers' bodies has brought production of many films to a halt. These include Allu Arjun's "Pushpa 2", Balakrishna-Gopichand Malineni's yet to be titled film, Ravi Teja's "Tiger Nageshwara Rao" and "Ravanasura", Vijay Deverakonda's "Khushi" and Nagarjuna's "The Ghost".

(With inputs from IANS)