Telugu film producers to stop shoots from August 1 due to ‘increasing costs’

Members of the producers guild in the Telugu film industry have announced that they will be voluntarily withholding film shoots starting August 1. In a statement released on Tuesday night, the Hyderabad-based Active Telugu Producers Guild (ATPG) has said that they would be withholding all shoots until they can sit down and discuss ways to find solutions to their problems. The statement mentions revenue and costs as their concerns.

In a statement shared on the organisation’s official letterhead, the guild talked about the change in ‘revenue situations and increasing costs’ in the entertainment world since the Covid-19 pandemic. “Post-Pandemic with the changing revenue situations and increasing costs, it is becoming important for producers to discuss all the issues we are facing as a community of filmmakers,” read the statement.

The note added that in light of these changing conditions, producers have decided to stop film shoots till solutions can be found. “It is our responsibility to better our ecosystem and ensure that we are releasing our films in a healthy environment. In this regard, all producer members of the Guild have voluntarily decided to withhold shootings from August 1st 2022 to sit in discussions until we find workable resolutions,” the statement concluded.

While it isn’t clear just which production houses and films will follow this decision but speculations are rife that the upcoming films of actors like Mahesh Babu, Jr NTR, and Prabhas may face delays because of this.

The Telugu film industry has seen several hits post-pandemic, most notably RRR and Pushpa: The Rise, but producers are wary of the changing revenue model. Earlier, a film producer had told the news agency, “Theatrical revenues, except for blockbuster movies like RRR, KGF-2 and one or two others, have fallen to an abysmal low of 20%. This has hit the industry hard, which was already reeling under the Covid impact. Everyone is now worried about the sustainability of the industry in such a scenario.”