AP stumps TS in box-office collections

Despite Telangana State boasting of 31 districts, star-studded Telugu films are making more money in 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh and changing the game.

"It is true that collections in Telangana state, formerly known as Nizam region, used to be 40 to 45% of total collections for Telugu films, but this year there is a drop in collections and Andhra Pradesh is ahead," admits Vijayender Reddy, ex-president of Telangana Film Chamber of Commerce.

He rules out that the reason for drop in collection is due to Rs 200 ticket rate. "In Telangana, we hiked the ticket rate from Rs 80 to Rs 100 in more of 300-odd theatres, whereas it was sold for Rs 200 in most of the theatres in Andhra Pradesh, that helped them to gain additional revenues in AP," he reasons.

Actually, recent releases 'Sarileru…." and 'Ala Vaikuntapurramloo,' both jointly garnered net collections of Rs 55 plus crore in Telangana State in two weeks, while collected more than Rs 80 crore in Andhra Pradesh region.

"The viewers in Andhra Pradesh are true movie buffs, who love to watch their favourite stars. Unmindful of ticket rates, they would like to catch up new movies along with their families which reflects in the raising collections, " says distributor Vamsi Kishore, who claims that Nellore, Krishna, East and West along with Ceded area comprising of Ralayaseema region- from Tirupati to Kurnool and Cuddapah to Thada and even small small centres like Narasaropet and Chillakaluripeta fetching huge collections.

"Even the number of theatres in Andhra Pradesh are more than 900 theatres against 450-odd theatres in Telangana which is bound to give an edge to the region.

Adding to it, the fan clubs of stars like Mahesh Babu, Jr NTR, Allu Arjun and Prabhas are much higher in AP, so producers earn more through benefit shows by selling tickets between Rs 500 Rs 2,000 to draw sensational collection," he adds.

However, Vijayendar Reddy, attributes the drop in viewership to OTT platforms, new films on satellite channels in just two months.

"New movies on OTT platforms in 45 days and telecasting of new films on satellite channels in two months has dented the viewership badly. Not only in TS, there is huge drop in viewership across India." he concludes.