It’s no longer a matter of 100 days in Tollywood

 

The shift in focus seems to be towards a 100 crore collection mark. The trend most definitely began with Magadheera. That was the movie that gave the industry the belief that the Rs. 100 crore collection mark can be attained. Dookudu gave that belief further credence. In times where a big hero’s film is released with 1500 to 2000 theatres, a 100-day run is all but unthinkable. Piracy too is a reality that many producers accept and live with. So the norm of 100-days run that most of us grew up with is for all practical purposes over. The aim today is a blitzkrieg of prints and a maximum realization of collections. The mantra is pace. How quickly can you wrap a film? How many prints can you drum up for theaters? And how much you can collect in the first week? Puri Jagan among directors and Ravi Teja among established heroes have mastered this craft. As Mahesh showed, with Businessman, the rest are catching up too. The producers book table profits. And the distributors are helped by a pre-release publicity wave and a short post-release collection surge. And the next movie begins with the same template in mind.