13th Friday is generally considered an unlucky date but on May 13th, Friday, a Telugu film dubbed from Tamil film Pichaikkaran was released in just about 50 single-screen theatres in Telangana and AP proving more than lucky for the gutsy producer of the Telugu film – Chadalavada Lakshman. Laksh, as he is affectionately called, released the film with a surprise title called Bichagadu. The tagline said “The Billionaire” and had Vijay Anthony as the hero and music composer with a debutante heroine Sabna Titus. Vijay Anthony is known to the Telugu audience as the music director of “Mahatma” (directed by Krishna Vamsee) and as a hero in films like Dr. Salimand Nakli. The worldwide rights of the film was bought by Lakshman for all of Rs.50 lakhs but 37 days since the release of the film in both the Telugu states and parts of Bengaluru and Orissa, Bichagadu is raining collections. What started as a slow, nondescript film has become the biggest giant-killer felling even big films like Brahmotsavam and holding strong against films like A.Aa and the just-released Gentleman. The film is now exhibited in over 200 theaters and the collections are going strong at Rs.13 crores as of June.
No doubt about it. Bichagadu is the most sensational super-duper hit of 2016 which has become a cult talking point from trade pundits to film exhibitors to the audiences who matter most. Here is a quick dossier on what makes Bichagadu raging success that’s a new benchmark; it proves Telugu audiences will always warm up to good films with good content.
How did Chadalavada Lakshman decide to back Bichagadu?
[pullquote position=”left”]The film’s gigantic success proves that when it comes to soaking in good content, Telugu audiences will go the full distance in embracing good cinema. It is the coterie of big production houses and movie stars who should avoid throttling genuinely good films like Bichagadu[/pullquote]Chadalavada Lakshman’s father is a noteworthy producer and distributor of about 50 films in Telugu who runs a production house called Sri Tirumala Tirupati Venkateswara Films. About a decade back, Lakshman acted in films as a hero with films like Neetho Vasta, 786, Mestri etc. After trying his luck, Laksh did his MBA in Singapore while running a trading company simultaneously. Being passionate about films, he was always keen to identify films with differentiated content and unique connect with the audience. When Pichaikkaran got released in March, some friends called Laksh and asked him to see the film. Until then, no big distributor or producer in Tollywood had bid for dubbing rights of the film in Telugu (which shows that not many can spot a winner by thinking differently). Once Laksh saw the film, he was convinced this was the film that could herald his foray into production and distribution that was always on his mind. Films was his family business besides interests in timber etc. Vijay Anthony Productions which owned the rights of the Tamil film sold the worldwide Telugu films to the production house of STTV (Sri TirumalaTirupatiVenkateswara Productions) for a paltry Rs.50 lakhs.
Once Lakshman got convinced of the film and its intrinsic merit, he thought he had a winner on hand even if it missed the attention of the biggies in Tollywood. He swung right into action and started dubbing of the film in right earnest – he took special care of the visuals, the dialogues and the relevance to the theme of the film. He blocked the dates a week ahead of Brahmotsavam and by then, he had worked out a two-pronged strategy for the film. Strategy 1 was how to market the film if Mahesh Babu film became a hit. Strategy 2 was how to market the film if the latter film releasing on 20th May was a flop. Eventually, he took off the marketing with a huge pre planned strategy 1 to publicize good visuals and cash in on word-of-mouth talk. Since all theaters were blocked for MB movie, the producers of Bichagadu had to struggle to get theaters.
One of the initial hiccups was that distributors and exhibitors were reluctant to release the film because of the title itself. Can the title be changed? Who wants to see a beggar’s life for the duration of the film? Will anybody feel better seeing such a film? Questions the audience might ask were posed by the distributors. But Lakshman did not budge. He was convinced that if the title was something different than that, it would have got more eyeballs in the initial days but that wouldn’t have given him so much satisfaction as his team got now. And honestly, Lakshman thinks that to keep any other title for a subject matter of the film would literally be cheating the audiences. In the end, his conviction proved him right and others wrong: The story of a Billionaire who becomes a beggar for a cause is a moving feast of rich visuals, powerful emotions and a blend of good comedy and romantic tracks that leaves you nourished for 115 minutes. Instead of dragging with mindless songs and violence and sleaze, the film draws you in with hard-hitting dialogues and remarkable commentary on life through real emotions played by the lead cast of Vijay Anthony, Satna Titus. The film doesn’t bore you, and all the characters in the film have a set role to play which fits in the overall storyline of the film. The climax is swift and polishes off a remarkable narration interlaced with crisp editing and tacky narration. The film also highlights the lives of beggars in a way that seldom gets the coverage shown in this film and yet there are no lags. At a time when most films in Telugu hype content with 150 minute plus mindless plots with hyperventillatory scenes and songs, the film’s length sends a strong message to producers and directors: stop over-cooking films with comatose content that wears the audience out. Surprise, director Sasi who delivered such a good film made a film called Sreenu in the nineties with Victory Venkatesh and Twinkle Khanna that bombed at the box-office.
The producers of the film spent an additional Rs.1.50 crores on the marketing strategies which includes slick trailers on Telugu channels, subtle posters on the billboards and promos on radio stations. What swung the audiences to the film is the content and the convincing way it is presented; it egged them on to take the job of giving word-of-mouth publicity themselves to others. Multiplexes which were reluctant till Brahmotsavam started opening up their screens for Bichagadu in the third week. Karnataka started screening the film from the fifth week onwards and Orissa started screening the film from the second week. After A.Aa released, most theaters and multiplexes had more screens to offer.[pullquote position=”left”]What started as a slow, nondescript film has become the biggest giant-killer felling even big films like Brahmotsavam and holding strong against films like A.Aa and the just-released Gentleman. [/pullquote]
The film’s gigantic success proves that when it comes to soaking in good content, Telugu audiences will go the full distance in embracing good cinema. It is the coterie of big production houses and movie stars who should avoid throttling genuinely good films like Bichagadu. The good news is: the film is surging in popularity as it is on the verge of completing its 50-day run in theaters. The bad news (which is actually an opportunity even now for people who think differently like Chadalavada Lakshman) is, the film is yet to find distributors for US, UK and the Middleast, the film’s satellite rights are yet to be sold even though the first offer has come from Zee Telugu, and the online DVD rights of the film are yet to be sold.
For the producer, what is surprising is that the collections in Andhra Pradesh are more solid than Telangana. Rayalseema, Coastal and parts of Vizag and Vijayawada are doing mind-blowing business whereas response in Telangana has just picked up after the pressure on screens has reduced. Lakshman feels that a lot of audience in Hyderabad have switched over to multiplex viewing habits and the few number of screens for Bichagadu make it tough for collections to go up. Had more screens in multiplex been available from the first week, they would have crossed another Rs.5 crore by now. But six weeks on since release, the tickets for Bichagadu are still selling in black which means there is still pent-up demand for the film. In areas like Banjara Hills, Jubilee Hills and Punjagutta, there are still no screens available in multiplexes for Bichagadu which means the the film’s screening will go up.
According to Trade business circles, A Aa film got bid for Rs.8 crores approximately (in T state) and the collections have so far been around Rs.12 crores in Telangana but from an RoI perspective, it pales in comparison to Bichagadu whose investment for worldwide rights is just Rs.50 lacs. Lakshman who has re-entered the film industry with a successful project like BG says he wants to give great content-oriented films to the Telugu audiences in the coming years. He says everything from selecting films to the way budgeting is shooting up with hefty remunerations for stars has to change. If the movie is not good, the exhibitors and the distributors have to take out the film from the screens instead of running it for statistical or other considerations. This is also an area in which his father is fighting the big producers so that small film producers can be supported and encouraged. The producer of BG is confident that having given a god product, he will spare no effort to showcase another good product.
To sum up, Bichagadu is what happens like magic. It is a desirable Black Swan event with plenty of lessons in pluck that made all the luck and difference to its producer C. Lakshman and his production house. He deserves the glory because he acted fast and thought different. More power to producers like him.
