The narrow lane outside the Navrang Theater in Vijayawada’s Governorpet was once brought to an excited audience with a taxi and autorickshaw. On hoardings, big posters caught the film into the cast in action and drama, and in the air, hanging out of the hall, hanging the faint snipites of dialogues and music.
Opened in 1964, the Navrang Theater was a cultural milestone, where rickshaw pullers and taxi drivers proud to watch Hindi and English films with the city’s elite. The blockbusters lasted for months, in which the word of the mouth was doing its magic. Today, however, Silence has immersed the theater, its vacant seats and faded walls in a clearly housefull.
The Navrang Theater is one of the last few of the single screen in Andhra Pradesh. Most of its contemporary, the state’s first theater Maruthi Talkies, Vijaya Talkies, Sri Durga Mahal, Mohan Das, all in Vijayawada, have been closed, while many others have either leased theiraters or rented them as property assets.
The fall began decades ago, when TV became common in homes. Then the Internet revolution, smartphone penetration and finally, the spread of OTTS came. These, a “unfair” revenue-sharing model between distributors and exhibitors, as well as the back of this industry of the future has been broken.
Rolling with punches
For RV Bhupal Prasad, the proprietor of the Navrang Theater, its “passion” that keeps him in business. His family owned 13 theaters including Saraswati Talkies, Saraswati Picture Palace, Leela Mahal and Navrang across the state. Leela Mahal, which was opened in Vijayawada in 1944, was the first theater in the Andhra region of Madras Presidency to screen English and Hindi films.
An old projector on a performance at a theater in Vijayawada. , Photo Credit: GN Rao
Today, which film does he take on screen. “It’s tedious; we don’t know which film will attack a cord with the audience. Sometimes, even at the box office a large starler tank, and sometimes, makes a small film waves,” she says.
Title in a research paper of 2021 Enamory as an epidemic effect: single screen in Telugu countryWriter SV Srinivas, Azim Premji University, a professor of literature and media studies at Bangalore and Raghav Nanduri says that about 90% of single-screen theater owners in Andhra Pradesh have leased theiraters.
The dewinding business is one of the reasons that they did so. “These days, pirated copies reach someone’s smartphone even before the film’s release. Why would anyone want to suffer losses? Therefore, they lease the theater for those who have a prostitute to run it. It guarantees a stable income. These days, it is more understandable than running a supermarket,” calls an experienced man who demanded. AP and beyond AP and Telangana, over 600 independently running a single screen are hemoro money.
One of the authors of the research paper, Srinivas says that the single screen on lease has helped survive. “Under the lease system, where most of the lesser industry have bigshots, several single screens were renovated and a multiplex was felt. Also, re -release, also, has become a lifeline for many theaters.” However, some people in business feel that younger makers find their films difficult to release in theaters run by these Bigwigs.
To be in the race with multiplexes, the Seleja Theater in Vijayawada was rebuilt to offer more features to the audience. , Photo Credit: GN Rao
On expenses, experienced exhibitors suggest that in a city such as Hyderabad or Visakhapatnam, it requires about ₹ 20,000 a day a day to run the same screen. In small cities, it can be around ₹ 15,000. The power bill is about ₹ 2.5 lakh in a month and the salary of staff is about ₹ 1.5 lakh. “If we get ₹ 4 lakh in a month, we can also break, but we rarely get it.”
While Kamal Haasan’s 2022 film Vikram In the first week, he has ₹ 7 lakh, the same actor’s recent film thug Life In its theater, 7,000 scattered together for 6% of the occupancy rate. He said, “I did a loss of ₹ 3 lakh in the last four months.”
Revenue sharing model
Some single-screen owners say that by reducing the footfall, piracy and OTT platforms are faced by multiplexes, their position is a bit better. And it is in the difference here, that the main concern of the exhibitions comes out: Revenue-sharing model.
To understand the revenue-sharing model between exhibitors and distributors, it is important to know how the film’s purchase and book system works.
Grandy Vishwanath says, “The concept of the exhibitor-vitarak was present since the first film.” His grandfather, GK Mangaraju, became the first distributor and exhibitor in the state in 1927, when silent films gave way to Talkies. Their distribution is the first distribution company in the state, Poona Pictures, the state’s first distribution company.
“Earlier, it was a healthy system. A manufacturer would inform the distributor about a new film. A distributor would look into casting, material and production costs and then invest in the film to buy rights. There used to be a distributor for that particular film for that particular film. The distributor will have a link with some theater exhibitions, which will be shared for a film.
Because only one or two theaters screened a film, it would have a good run. A. Nejwara Rao-Starrer Devdasu The state’s first theater was opened in 1921 at the Maruthi Theater in Vijayawada.
Now, however, the old established distribution companies have been replaced by ‘buyers’. Sri Srinivas and Nanduri said in their research paper, “These buyers can be with the capital to bid for distribution rights. Usually, buyers competely bid, and in betting, for rights in single-distribution sector, resulting in sufficient advantage for producers of large-bound vehicles.”
According to some film exhibitors, the entry of these buyers reduced their industry collapse. Mohan (name changed), a philanthropist, says that now there is a distributor for every district, and that person ensures that the film is released on all screens in that district.
“These days every new film is displayed together on all screens. When the audience spreads between so many theaters, the possibility of a theater sees a houseful;
In addition, these days, new-age distributors help producers to provide finance to big budget films. Distributors collect half the amount by the manufacturer requested from the theater owners. If the film rents well, the producers give back the advance amount to the distributors, which, in turn, give it back to the exhibitions. If the film is a flop, according to some exhibitions, exhibitors do not get their money immediately. As a result, the money of the exhibitions has been blocked for a long time. Depending on the capacity of the terrain and film, advance can be from ₹ 5 lakh to ₹ 40 lakh anywhere.
This, in addition to the current revenue-sharing model, has crippled single-screen theaters in the state. “The distributors decide to share the revenue unilaterally. In the first week of the dramatic release of a film, the distributors give us a fare or percentage system, which also gives them more profit. If the film is a hit, the distributors pay us. If it is a flop, they provide a percentage,” says Mohan.
Ahead
In May, film exhibitors in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana announced that they were not in a position to continue screen films. Mohan says that one of his main demands is that the ticket revenue is shared on a percentage basis, such as how it is in multiplexes and other states. “The percentage model can solve some of our problems,” they think.
According to the research paper, single-screen theater is important for box office collection and contribute to tickets with up to 60% tickets. Despite this stature, there is no new single-screen theater in two Telugu states in the last decade, saying experienced exhibitors.
Mr. Grandy Vishwanath feels that along with overhaul in the revenue sharing system, the government should also allow flexible entry rates (ticket prices). Currently, ticket prices in the state are fixed according to the government order (Go MS.NO.13) issued on March 7, 2022. In this order, the government had set rates for various types of theaters in municipalities and corporations.
“Exhibitors must be given the discretion to decide on the entry rate (ticket price) of a film, based on its ability. It will help get more protection for short films,” he says.
Echoing it, Chandrashekhar (name changed), another exhibitor states that a film has a higher ticket prices than the excessive production cost. Once a filmmaker spends a ticket of ₹ 250 for a big budget film, they cannot watch another film in a theater for a month, say, one month. He said, “Little films released after big films are often killed in this way. So, so, not much footfall is seen,” they say, the government should also ensure that a film is released on the OTT platform eight weeks after the dramatic release.
Chandrashekhar says that the theater owners like him never called Close“It’s unfortunate that we were misunderstood; we want to request the government to consider our demands only for a percentage system, which will allow us to take some breathing space. Finally, our goals are the same, to bring the audience back into theaters.”
What distributors say
A distributor in Visakhapatnam, who demanded oblivion, states that it is a distributor who stands to lose more than a scope when a film flopped. “These days the success rate is 6%. We invest in a film and when it flops we lose. The exhibitions have nothing to lose. They can benefit from the least parking fee. The advance amount that they have to participate, they come back immediately.” For the demand of exhibitions for the implementation of a percentage system (for all weeks), he said it would be harmful to distributors.
Responding to the concerns of the exhibitors, Bharat Bhushan, president of the Telugu Film Chambers of Commerce, says that distributors are also facing problems. The entire issue arises from the lack of hit in the industry. “A flop film is a death bell for everyone”
The Telugu film Chamber of Commerce has formed a 30 -member committee, which includes distributors, exhibitions, and manufacturers, which are to solve a solution for all. The report is expected soon. Bharat Bhushan says that a decision will be taken about the demands after the meeting with the stakeholders on 23 and 24 June.
AP Deputy Chief Minister K. Pawan Kalyan emphasized the need to properly regulate the cinema hall across the state and keep food, the prices of beverages are appropriate, many are expecting positive results from these meetings.
Published – June 13, 2025 09:43 AM IST
