Wrong move cost NOTA producer Rs18 crore?

Leading Tamil producer Gnanavel Raja got hefty offers from the distributors of the two Telugu states to buy the Telugu rights of ‘NOTA’ since it featured hotshot star Vijay Devarakonda in the lead who was riding high on back-to-back blockbusters like ‘Arjun Reddy’ and ‘Geeta Govindam’ and his craze is at its peak right now. 

But Gnanavel preferred to release the film on his own through Sunil Narang and UV Creations and the game plan went terribly wrong. “Gnanavel got offers from Telugu film distributors to the tune of Rs 18 crore including Rs 12 crore for Andhra region, Rs 4 crore for the Nizam region and Rs 2 crore from the Ceded region. 

He could have walked laughing all the way to the bank since he made the film with a budget of just Rs 12 crore,” says distributor Vishweshwar Rao, who claims that now the Tamil producer has to be content with just a couple of crores. “After bearing all the expenses like fee for digital screenings, rentals and on publicity, he could make a maximum amount of only Rs four crore as the film tanked at the box-office in the two Telugu states after a decent first day collections. Now with the NTR film set to release on October 11, it will be difficult to pick up,” adds Rao.  

ALSO READ: NOTA Movie First Weekend Box Office Collections Report