It has been a fierce Sankranthi in Tollywood with four films fighting it out for the top position and unsurprisingly it is the underdog HanuMan that has won the race against all odds. However, it wasn’t easy going against the industry’s big guys but how did they do it?
Leading up to the New Year, it was evident that HanuMan directed by Prashanth Varma was only behind Guntur Kaaram in terms of pre-release hype thanks to some very well-received promotional content.
In Hindi, the makers got a good deal and with producers having a decent presence in Andhra in terms of distribution only Nizam was the missing link in terms of garnering a good release. However, with Guntur Kaaram, Saindhav and Naa Saami Ranga having backing from top distributors everyone wanted the relatively smaller film to make way.
But HanuMan makers owing to the Hindi deal didn’t want to back off from Jan 12th. In the interim, Mythri movie makers who went into distribution last year picked up the Nizam rights for a solid amount and there was now hope that the Teja Sajja starrer will get decent showings.
However, Chamber people led by Dil Raju announced that HanuMan will only get the fourth priority as all other films have top actors. Ultimately, it became clear that only 5 single screens were allocated out of 95 in Hyderabad which was kind of shocking.
So, with no option left HanuMan team went for paid premieres on Jan 11th and it was a blockbuster success giving it massive momentum going into Day 1. The rest was history, as the movie turned out be a Huge Blockbuster and even on its 5th Day recording HouseFulls throughout the Telugu states along with an unimaginable run in North America.
Guntur Kaaram which got a huge release on the 12th is now lagging HanuMan in terms of showings and collections in many places. This is once again proved that, to watch a Good film people will go to any lengths.
Distributors/Producers feel the main advantage of holding theaters in Sankranthi is, that most people tend to watch a movie during Sankranthi holidays and will pick whatever is available near them. However, Sankranthi has proved them wrong, you cannot force people to watch what you want. Ultimately, they will find the movie they want to watch in any way.
This oppression from big people in distribution has helped this film gain more attention and sympathy. With content also working out, the lack of showings(most sold out) also created additional enthusiasm to go check out. Hopefully, these distribution landlords have learned their lessons.
Congrats to HanuMan team on the Tremendous success!
