Rs 500, Rs 1,000 ban effect: Ram Charan's Dhruva release likely to be postponed

The makers of Telugu movie Dhruva, starring Ram Charan and Rakul Preet Singh, are said to be considering postponing its release following the ban on the currency notes of higher denominations.

The central government's decision to demonetise the high-value currency notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 on November 8 has created a chaos with people left with little or no cash on hand as recalibrating ATM machines to dispense the new currency notes is taking time. This move has created a financial crunch for film-goers who seem in no mood to visit theatres to watch films. The average performance of Sahasam Swasaga Sagipo at the box office is a proof for the after-effect of the currency ban.

Following this ban, the makers of Bethaludu and Intlo Deyyam Nakem Bhayam have already delayed the release of the movies in a bid to escape from suffering losses. Some other Tollywood filmmakers are considering postponing their movies and Allu Aravind, who is producing Dhruva, is one of such producers.

Dhruva was initially scheduled to be released in theatres on 2 December and it was delayed by a week due to some reason. Sources close to the production team say that Allu Aravind is seriously mulling delaying the release of his upcoming movie until things are settled down.

"Allu Aravind, the producer of the film is thinking of postponing this film as smaller denominations are not fully available. As this is a big release, they need good openings. He is planning to release the film once normalcy is restored in the state," Deccan Chronicle quoted a source as saying.

Directed by Surender Reddy, Dhruva is a remake of Tamil hit action entertainer Thani Oruvan. Ram Charan and Rakul Preet Singh are playing the lead roles, Aravind Swamy, Navdeep, Upen Reddy and Ranadhir appear in the supporting cast of the film, which has Hiphop Tamizha's music and PS Vinod and Aseem Mishra's cinematography.