“The one-rupee revenue that everyone once earned is gone. Even big films have seen their income drop from a rupee to half a rupee. Today, we see movies collecting hundreds of crores, but we all need to understand that these collections are not coming because audience numbers have increased. They are mainly the result of higher ticket prices and rising costs overall. In simple terms, the average moviegoer is coming to theatres less often. Increasing the burden on the limited number of people who still come to theatres and then calling it “massive collections” is nothing short of foolishness.The situation of small films is even worse; their income has fallen to the level of a quarter rupee. Now, everyone is fighting over who should take what share from that quarter rupee, while completely forgetting why the original one-rupee revenue disappeared in the first place.
Producers are suffering here. In the same way, single-screen exhibitors are also facing losses. This is the reality, and there is no doubt about it.But what is the actual root cause of this situation? Instead of arguing over who deserves what percentage from the existing revenue, shouldn’t we first identify why this situation arose and fix it?In my opinion, the main reasons are these:Heroes are taking far too much time to complete films. Whether people agree or not, stars play a major role in bringing the average audience to theatres. Especially in the Telugu film industry, heroes have a huge influence in attracting audiences. In such an industry, if heroes do only one film every two years, audiences will gradually lose interest in cinema itself. The impact of this is not limited to big films alone; it also affects small films.Releasing films on OTT platforms within just 27 days is reducing the audience’s motivation to visit theatres.Lack of compelling content that truly excites audiences. People are beginning to feel, “Is it really worth spending so much money to watch this in theatres?”Extremely high food and beverage prices in multiplexes.Out of these four reasons, three are completely within our control. Only the content aspect cannot be entirely controlled.Without fixing these three issues, there is no use arguing about revenue-sharing percentages. Tomorrow, people will simply continue fighting over who gets what share of that already reduced quarter-rupee income, but no one will truly benefit from it.What is the point of fighting over already-shrunken revenues without addressing the root problem itself?”, wrote noted producer Bunny Vas on X this morning.
