Superstar in twin cities
A tribute to Superstar on his 40th year in the industry
by
Hanuman/Jamadagni and Vijay Bhaskar

Before the change in demographic composition (mass scale migrations from other districts) and the transfer of base from Chennai bought about paradigm shifts, the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secundrabad have a long history of patronizing Hindi movies. Hindi movies not only debuted in more theaters but also received preferential treatment in theater allocations. Theater owners often sided with the local distributors of Bollywood movies and even abruptly terminated several super hits just to accommodate Bollywood. For instance, Superstar Krishna’s super hit movie Pandanti Kapuram made way to Rajesh Khanna’s Shehzade at Paradise on its 70th day. The intense competition for theaters on one hand and the pervasive problem of cannibalization - another movie of a hero or that of his competitor’s releasing in a short interval and thereby eating/splitting the revenues – on the other meant that it was very difficult for movies to get a “minimum respectable run” (see definition at the end of the report), a phrase coined by Mr. Vijayabhaskar, an expert on the movie run details of stars of yesteryears.

Despite these adverse conditions, Superstar Krishna, shorthand for dynamism and mass image, has a fantastic record in Hyderabad and Secundrabad. 56 out of his 320(plus) movies have had a run of 50 and above in Hyderabad (exhibit 1 gives the synopsis and exhibit 3 gives the complete list) while 13 of them have completed the double by running for 50 plus days in Secundrabad. 18 theaters share this success story in Hyderabad (exhibit 2) while 6 of them do so in Secundrabad (exhibit 4). Unfortunately, 13 more movies-most of them Super hits elsewhere, failed to reach the milestone by a whisker as they were terminated either on their 48th or 49th day (exhibit 5). These figures become more significant when viewed from the fact that

1. there was less number of universal hits-movies that fared well all over the state- coming from the industry those days.

2. it took almost twenty years for another star (NBK’s Anasooyamma Gaari Alludu) to break the theater run record (43 days) of our Superstar at Manohar, Secundrabad.

3. SS never interfered in the issues involving his movie runs even under the gravest of circumstances. Which other hero will tolerate someone terminating his movie on its 174th day (Pandanti Kapuram) and 99th day (Mayadari Malligaadu)?

4. SS movie run’s were more seriously affected by the problem of cannibalization than those of any other hero-past or present.

5. SS movies are reputed more for their revenues than for their runs.

Exhibit 1 Run synopsis

Exhibit 3 - Complete run details

Records:
1. Hyd-Sangam-177-AS-highest running all time theater record (vetagadu-176).
2.  Hyd-Sudarshan A/c (currently Sudharshan 70 mm)-Pandanti Kapuram-174(theater highest running) a record up to Bobbili Raja (210 days)(18 years).
3.  Simhaasanam is the first 100 days film which ran with 4 shows in Devi-70 mm (104 days)
4.  NSK has highest number of MRR (minimum respectable run) color films in Hyderabad -140-an indelible record in Hyderabad film history.

Minimum respectable run defined:
1.  If a film is released in February of a non leap year, 29 days is the minimum respectable run for that film.
2.  If a film is released in February of a leap year, 30 days is the minimum respectable run for that film.
3.  If a film is released in April, June, September, or November of a year, 31 days is the minimum respectable run for that film.
4.  If a film is released in January, March, May, July, August, October, or December, 32 days is the minimum respectable run for that film.

You can reach authors at [email protected]