The Telugu distribution landscape has seen a massive change of late. Dil Raju's SVC (Sri Venkateswara Creations) company has made a massive deal worth a whopping ₹120 crores (or around $14.4 million) to pick up the rights to Yash's movie 'Toxic: A Fairytale for Grown-Ups' in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. This bid has beaten the record for any non-local Telugu film, but right off the bat, trade insiders are talking about the cash it's likely to bring in - or rather, whether it will bring in anything at all - given the uncertainty of the March release period.
The major problem Dil Raju is facing is that Toxic will come out on March 19, pitting it directly against Ranveer Singh's 'Dhurandhar 2' in the state. Now that spy-thriller has really made a name for itself up in North India, but its presence down in the Telugu states is going to cause Dil Raju some headaches when it comes to getting his movie on the big screens. But it's not the only thing he's going to have to contend with - on March 26, Pawan Kalyan's new movie 'Ustaad Bhagat Singh', produced by Raju's long-time rival Mythri Movie Makers - will also be out in theaters.
The pressure on Raju is huge - he's got a very small window of time in which to get everything just right and it's going to be mighty tempting to slip up. As it is, Toxic needs to rake in more cash than KGF: Chapter 2 just to break even on the ₹120 crore deal and given that it's going to have to contend with the 'Power Star' factor its easy to see why this is such a tall order. SVC is planning on sticking with its top-end 3d screens for at least the second week - which could lead to some very bad publicity with Pawan Kalyan, as they've got a project lined up with the star himself. Given that this is something that's going to have a knock-on impact that goes far beyond just the financials, it makes the whole thing a delicate balancing act.
It's worth noting that Dacoit and Peddi are dropping their movie from their scheduled release slot and this opens the door for Raju to stake his claim and see how SVC's dominance of the theater space holds up against the might of a major franchise film and a local superstar.