Star Heroes Erasing Those Numbers

Almost all businesses and professions calculate and take decisions based on return on investment and film industry is no different. A film's budget depends on the hero's market, image and performance of his previous films. Till recently, makers used to have a cap on budget. But, of late, all that constraints and thin red lines are getting erased.

Gone are the days of budget calculations and fears. Most of them are showing confidence that if a film has strong story, one need not worry about the film's budget. That is the reason why Tollywood is witnessing big budget films of Rs 100crs which is becoming prevalent.

Till sometime back, makers used to experience scares when budget crossed Rs 50 crs mark. But now everyone is talking about 100crs, 200crs, 300crs budget in a proud manner. Chiranjeevi's Sye Raa is made with a budget of Rs 250crs. Prabhas' Saaho too is coming with more or less Rs 250crs budget.

Ram Charan, NTR's RRR with Rajamouli is over Rs 350 crs budget. Producers are showing confidence on the stars, stories, directors and are fully confident that movie lovers will turn them into blockbusters.

Budget constraints got erased the moment Tollywood films started grossing Rs 100crs breaking that barrier. Baahubali proved that Tollywood films have no barrier and gave confidence that a powerful story and market acumen is enough to get good returns. So producers are not thinking twice in investing in huge amounts if they get a good story. 

Some films stories too are demanding huge investments as movie lovers too started comparing regional films with that of Hollywood films. Chiranjeevi's Sye Raa,a historical entertainer should showcase British era, army, war scenes and it demands quality VFX. The producers planned to turn the film Pan India and so roped in stars like Amitabh Bachchan and this increased the film's budget.

Prabhas' range increased after Baahubali and so he should select different genre films apart from the grandiose. The makers of Saaho included all of them and this increased the budget. Just for action scenes they spent a whopping Rs 100crs. Rajamouli's multi starrer RRR too is a fantasy based historical entertainer. His thoughts will be always extraordinary and so budget obviously increases.

Gunasekhar is turning Rana into Hiranyakasyap and the director is known for his extravagant sets. He is using high end VFX and so the budget shot up to Rs 200crs. The makers are recovering their investments even before the film release in form of digital, satellite rights apart from theatrical rights. They are also making money with Hindi dubbing rights. With Telugu cinema expanding globally even to China and Japan, the producers are growing in confidence. Even medium budget films like Geetha Govindam are raking in Rs 100 crs at the box office increasing their confidence.

But analysts say producers should exercise restraint and shouldn't blindly invest in huge amounts shooting the budget only banking on stardom. If things go wrong even a little bit, movie lovers will give them a huge shock.