Trade story - 8th August 2005

AFBA emerges as winner
'A film by Aravind' (AFBA) - a song-less thriller - was released with 20 prints on 9th of July 2005 all over Andhra. The producer Sridhar had no choice but to release this film on his own in all the territories. This film met with lukewarm response at box office in the week one. But a positive mouth talk prevailed. It would have been taken out of theaters after 1st week if slab tax system were there. Thanks to the percentage tax system introduced by the present government. The collections were increased in the 2nd week. By 3rd week the collections of the film increased by 100% compared to week one. With good mouth talk spreading like wildfire, the theaters playing AFBA are filled with college crowds during day time and family crowds during night time.

This film cost the producer 1.4 crores (including publicity). And this amount is expected to be recovered by 50 days. In Sudarshan 70mm alone, AFBA is expected to rake in around 30 lakhs. It is also doing extremely well in Kukatpally and Dilshuknagar. The total expected share in long run for AFBA in Hyderabad city alone would be at least 60 lakhs. In Vizag, this film collected a share of 13 lakhs so far and the expected potential of this film in total run is expected to be a minimum of 25 lakhs. Vijayawada territory would give a share of 25 lakhs to AFBA's kitty.

When asked about the reason behind the success of AFAB, presenter of this film KS Rama Rao (President of AP Film Producers Counsel and man behind prestigious banner Creative Commercials) said, "People are fed up with routine films with regular fights and one song every half an hour format films. They expect different films. And the abolishment of slab system helped this film to sustain the initial hiccups till the positive mouth talk pulled the movie lovers to theaters in 2nd and 3rd week. I fought for getting percentage system for the same reason. AFBA would inspire the other filmmakers to choose novel subjects and experiment by keeping the budget low."

With niche-market films like A Film By Aravind and Anukokunda Oka Roju doing well at box office, the filmmakers would have these films as fine example to emulate and make novel flicks by keeping budget low.

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