The Telugu film industry is caught in a row over curbs on dubbed movies being proposed in a bid to protect the interests of local producers of small budget films.
Taking a cue from neighbouring Karnataka, the Telugu Film Producers' Council had, in its general body meeting recently, decided to ban dubbing movies, particularly from Tamil, on the ground that they were "detrimental" to the original movie-making in Telugu.
The powerful body of film makers has asked its members not to buy dubbing rights of any non-Telugu movies and even warned of "non-cooperation" in case of anyone defying the ban.
The reasons for the harsh move are not far to seek. For the last couple of years, the dubbed films, particularly from Tamil, have been giving Tollywood, a nickname for Telugu film industry, a run for its money.
While a majority of the "straight" (original) films bombed at the box office, the dubbed ones set the cash boxes ringing and became major hits. The films starring Tamil superstar Rajnikanth, Vikram, Surya, Vijaykanth and Kamal Hasan are being lapped up by the film-crazy Andhraites, even overshadowing the local stars.
"There is definitely a logic behind the argument of the Producers' Council. A flood of dubbed films is adversely affecting the local talent, particularly the small budget players," D Suresh Babu, a leading producer and brother of popular actor Venkatesh, said.
More than one-third of the total 200 releases this year were dubbed films. Out of the sixty odd dubbed films released in 2005, about ten films made their mark at the box office, according to industry sources.
Among the run-away hits this year were the Rajnikanth-starrer 'Chandramukhi' directed by P. Vasu, Shankar's 'Aparichithudu' that catapulted Vikram to superstar status, A.R. Murugadas's 'Ghazini' with Surya in the lead role, the psycho thriller 'Manmatha' with Simbu in a dual role and the off-beat love story 'Premisthe', directed by Balaji Shakthivel for Shankar with debutantes Sandhya and Bharath.
The Tamil actor-choreographer Prabhudeva's maiden directorial venture 'Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana' turned out to be biggest grosser and even bagged the state government's Nandi award.
Apart from Tamil movies, over half-a-dozen films dubbed from English and other languages fared well too. On the other hand, the straight films of even big Telugu stars have flopped. Even megastar Chiranjeevi's films 'Jai Chiranjeeva' and 'Andarivaadu' fared poorly at the box office.
Of the 131 films released last year, only three were big hits and a little over half-a-dozen movies managed to recover their costs. Almost all the top actors faced drubbing at the box office. The list included Allari Pidugu (Balakrishna), Super (Nagarjuna), Balu ABCDEF (Pavankalyan), Subhashchandra Bose (Venkatesh), Political Rowdy (Mohan Babu), Narasimhudu (Junior NTR) and Soggadu (Tarun).
As a result of this trend, several producers are vying to pick up dubbing rights of successful Tamil films.
One of the major contributors for the poor show was skyrocketing cost of production. "Unlike Hindi and Tamil films, our movies do not have global markets. We should keep the cost of production in mind," Suresh Babu said.
The decision to impose restrictions on dubbed films has split the industry vertically with dubbing artistes, script writers, lyricists, a section of producers and the exhibitors opposing the move.
"It is a unilateral decision. It is producers who will stand to lose if they impose ban on dubbed films. We will not allow this," K Murali Mohan, Secretary of A P State Film Chamber of Commerce said.
The exhibitors (theatre owners) have also resented the Council's move, terming it as "big brotherly attitude." Holding an emergency meeting of their association here yesterday, they made it clear that they would defy such a ban and would continue to screen dubbed movies.
"If the producers council's decision is implemented, then hundred of theatres across the state will have to close down. When dubbed films are of a better quality, we cannot deprive the audience of the right to watch the films of their choice," Murali Mohan said.
"The cost of production has gone up so much that we cannot afford to make a straight movie in Telugu. It is still controlled by a handful of families of big-ticket producers. We are able to release a dubbing movie with much lesser budget. What is their problem?," said a small producer on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, scores of artistes representing Madras Dubbing Artistes' Union have been staging demonstration before the office of the A P Film Chamber of Commerce here for the last two days seeking withdrawal of the ban.
"It is a question of livelihood for us. If they ban dubbed films, we will be on the roads," Bharath Babu, a well-known writer said.
Source: The Hindu
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