Why big-budget movies in Telugu are biting the dust?

Telugu film industry (TFI) is one of the highest movie producers in India. It is also one of the top paid industries, which brings out between 125 to 140 straight films in a year. Having created its own brand in commercial cinema, it has failed to live up to its expectations in the recent times, as many big budget movies have miserably failed at the box-office.

In the last 12 months, as many as six mega-budget films have bitten the dust. Starting from Pawan Kalyan's Komaram Puli, which was approximately made with the the budget of 35 crores, failed to impress the audience. The next was Mahesh Babu starrer Khaleja (Budget 36), which also followed the same path, as the film proved to be a dud at the box-office. Though there were reports that it garnered around five crore profit, the industry considered it as not worthy, as the time and amount spend on it were huge.

The next in the list was Ram Charan's Orange. Makers of the film spent close to Rs. 40 crore on the film and incurred heavy loss. The movie struggled to recover even the invested money and the Magadheera star was forced to payback his remuneration amount to his uncle-producer Nagababu. These were the movies of 2010, which resulted in at huge losses for the producers. Read on for the current year report.

The year 2011 has also witnessed the same, as Prakash Kovelamudi's fantasy adventure Anaganaga O Dheerudu proved again that the mega-budget movies would not guarantee success at the BO. It was simultaneously made in Telugu and Tamil with the budget of Rs. 27 crores, but managed to secure half of the amount in three weeks. The losing money streak does not end here because Junior NTR's biggest ever Shakti became the biggest ever flop in the actor's career. It was made with Rs. 42 crores and disappeared from theatres in a few weeks.

The last and recently released Badrinath is also no exception. Allu Aravind, who created history by investing 38 crores for Magadheera and garnering more than double of what he spent on the film, expected the same from this film, but his dreams were shattered as the film failed to meet the expectations of the audience. However, the damage control work by the makers of the film through post release promotions helped to recover the budget.

When we look at all the above mentioned movies, it is clear that big-budget movies are not keeping the cash register ringing. The general reasons for the failure can easily put on the makers of the film for their lack of planning, unnecessarily over budgeting, poor script, promotions, etc.

We want our readers to answer the questions like what is your take on mega-budget flicks, which are not working in the Telugu film industry? What do you expect from a film? What are all your suggestions for the makers of the film? What is the fate of the Telugu film industry if this trend continues, as the Tollywood is facing a lot of competition from dubbed films.

We appreciate your constructive feedback and you can send your opinion to entertainment@oneindia.co.in