Sankranthi hits dry up pockets of viewers?

The much-hyped film 'Jaanu' failing to set box office on fire despite a unique plot and good enough performances by Samantha and Sharwanand and Naga Shaurya's 'Aswathama', a chilling crime drama, also fizzling out after three days, in between Ravi Teja's comeback film 'Disco Raja' also went down without a whimper.

"Frankly, festival movies 'Ala Vaikuntapurramloo' and 'Sarileru Neekevvaru' garnered more than Rs 130 crore in Telugu states within two weeks and left the Telugu audience high and dry," says distributor Ramakrishna, who claims that the budgets meant for weekend cinema for middle and lower middle class families got almost exhausted by two these movies.

"For example, a middle-class family will be earmarking Rs 1,000 or Rs 1,500 for movies in a month and that budget has been already spent, so they have no money to watch new movies that released subsequently," he informs.

More than eight movies hit the screens but none could spin box office magic. "Even stars like Ravi Teja and Samantha were unable to pull in crowds, so we shouldn't blame lesser known actors for the bad show in the last two weeks," says distributor Vamsi Kishore.

Actually, Naga Shaurya made a splash with his action avatar in 'Aswathama' , despite critics panning the movie. May be, it could have done much better if it was released some other day.

Even the soft love story of Shiva Kandukuri(Choosi Choodagane) and comic-caper '3 Monkeys' with 'Jarbardasth' stars Sudhir, Srinu and Ram Prasad couldnt make an impact in the market.

Another flop in the middle was 'Entha Manchivadavura' a story of a good samaritan starring Kalyan Ram couldn't rake in moolah. "More than the stories, blame it on the timing of the release.

Of course, few of those films were bad, but even good ones had to suffer due to festival dhamaka" adds Vamsi.

A majority of distributors believe that unnecessary ticket hike with the support of a Court order is distancing cinema from common man.

With tickets selling at Rs 200 and above squeezed money from the pockets of gullible viewers and that seems to be the major factor for the poor show of new bunch of movies.

Apart from fans of superstars, poor masses, rickhawallahs, daily wage earners and students failed to turn up in theatres after festival holidays.

"Star-stuck fans and the general audience coughed up big sums by digging deep into their pockets and were left in lurch," says distributor Ramakrishna, who feels that fancy ticket rates is distancing cinema from the reach of common man.

Another distributor Trinath says its kind of catch-22 situation for filmmakers and stars. "Small actors avoid a clash with stars and plan their release with a gap. But now that strategy is working against them."