The morning shows of Krack, the Telugu film directed by Gopichand Malineni and starring actors Ravi Teja and Shruthi Hassan, were stalled on the day of its release, on January 9, because of settlement issues between the film’s financiers and its producer, B Madhu.
While the film’s US shows were cancelled, the morning shows in India in both multiplexes and single-screen theatres were delayed, the film’s publicity manager told Silverscreen India. Financiers have demanded that B Madhu settle their dues before releasing the film.
Krack is the first major Telugu film up for release, after Solo Brathuke So Better released on December 25, 2020. While Solo Brathuke So Better has done well so far, many theatre owners were already considering permanently shutting down after facing significant losses in 2020, despite a line-up of new releases in 2021, headed by Krack.
According to Krack‘s publicity manager, the film’s financial issues have now been resolved. “The movie will be releasing today,” he said.
However, theatre owners say that there is still uncertainty about the film’s release.
Anupam Reddy, owner of the multi-screen Sudha Theatre at Hyderabad, told Silverscreen India, “Subsequent shows will continue provided everything is cleared. But, as of now, there is no clearance.”
He said, “As a theatre owner, I would say bad luck is continuing since the theatre business was in a lull all this time, and now when this big movie is supposed to release, it did not come.”
The cancellation of the morning has added to the looming uncertainty for theatre owners, who say that it will have an adverse impact, even on future shows.
Reddy said that a local distributor told him at around 8.30-9 am that the show would stay cancelled, even though the screening was to begin at 10.30 am. He said, “Tickets will be refunded since they were booked online and that is a monetary loss. But the problem is also that word-of-mouth spreads so fast. Even before the movie’s release, there will be a buzz that will affect future shows. Fewer people will come to the show and it will mean a big loss for us.”
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Gopal Reddy, owner of Ranga 70mm single screen theatre in Hyderabad, also felt that future shows would be impacted. He told Silverscreen India, “When the first show is disappointing, people don’t turn up for the next show. So, we incur losses. We are not sure about the subsequent shows either since we did not get any information.”
He said, “I got the information that were some settlement issues between producers and distributors. It is really disappointing because it was house full for the morning show today [Saturday]. This kind of thing has not happened in a very long time.” Ranga 70mm seats 1329 people at full capacity.
Apart from Krack, a number of Telugu films are scheduled to release around Pongal. These include Red, Alludu Adhurs, and Zombie Reddy.
At present, theatres in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are running at 50% occupancy.
With inputs from Ramya Ashok Kumar.