Telugu distributors seeking refund?

Blame it on ‘Kaala’, Telugu film distributors are reportedly seeking refund from the Tamil production house Lyca Productions. Actually, Telugu distributors Sunil Narang and others have reportedly paid an advance amount of Rs 20-odd crore for the Telugu dubbing rights of Rajinikanth’s upcoming film ‘2.0’ for a total amount of Rs 81 crore. “Telugu distributors are seeking a refund since they believe that the cost of the dubbing rights is the highest and it looks very difficult to recover after duds like ‘Kabali’ and ‘Kaala’ in the two Telugu states,” says a source from Chennai.

Banking on the heady combination of Rajinikanth and director Shankar along with B-town star Akshay Kumar, Telugu distributors believed that the sequel to the blockbuster ‘Robot’ would also draw big openings riding on the hype of the big budget sci-fi extravaganza as the combination of Rajinikanth and Shankar is considered to be a safe bet. Had the film been released by April as planned, then the Telugu distributors would have made some money riding on the hype around the sequel, but now, Rajinikanth’s market took a beating of sorts,” the source adds.

However, the disastrous openings for ‘Kaala’ has planted a doubt in the minds of Telugu distributors whether they would be able to recover their huge investments or not through the theatrical collections, since the Telugu satellite rights have already been sold by the Tamil producers.