Usually, box office figures of Tollywood movies would be almost on trot and the collections figures shared among top producers and distributors would be almost similar but this Sankranthi festival, things have taken an ugly turn. “It was baffling to observe vast disparity among box office figures shared in varied groups in the industry and it raised suspicion about actual collections,” says a distributor, who claims that many theaters were running empty but box office figures showed ‘housefull’ collections for such theatres. “It was a bit shocking since there was a big mismatch between occupancy and collections. Even overseas collections were mixed up with local collections and boosted the numbers. Also, films running with empty theatres were not removed and continued without any remorse. Actually, industry bigwigs rely on box office collections to understand the market of a hero or director and accordingly plan movies with them, but this time it has gone awry,” he adds.Actually, four films were released during Sankranthi including ‘Guntur Kaaram’, ‘Naa Saami Ranga’, ‘Saindhav’ and ‘HanuMan’. “This time, collection agents were managed which was never done before and it reflected in fudged collections. Earlier, independent distributors in some areas used to share exact figures but this time they were asked to keep quiet,” says a top producer and adds, “There will be two or three agents for each theatre or area even in remote areas in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. They would be sending ground and genuine collection reports to distributors and exhibitors. However, with more than 600-odd theatres under the control of big guns, manipulation was possible from top to bottom and setting a wrong precedent.” In fact, T-town superstars wouldn’t mind collections going up and down since they would have seen many blockbusters and flops in their respective careers but few over-ambitious distributors are trying to disturb the box office barometer which determines the star power of Telugu superstars. “If this unhealthy practice is going to continue, it would ruin the industry further besides sending out wrong signals and casting doubts on box office prowess of Telugu superstars who are making waves across India,” says another distributor and quips “fake remains fake however you try to fool around” .’
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