Mythri Ravi’s FaFa Dinner Story Raises Big Questions

The other day, Producer Mythri Ravi attended as one of the Guests of Directors Day Celebrations in Shilpa Kala Vedhika. During his address, Ravi revealed something very interesting.

“Malayalam Actor Fahadh Faasil invited me a Dinner at his house. He told me that in the Kerala film industry, we think about how to make Baahubali level revenue Film with a 20 crore budget. I felt very impressed. It is their perception that we need not spend big for seeing big revenues,” Ravi said.

This is a very important point, the industry has realized very late.

During the COVID, OTT Platforms offered big amounts to the Producers and destroyed the entire ecosystem.

Everyone from Supporting Actors to the technicians, directors, stars have increased their remunerations. Directors started flexing their budgets in the name of Making. And today, when the market crashed, the old habits die hard.

Why is the Kerala film industry making 200 Crore films with just 10-15 Crore budget films when Tollywood is not able to do that?

That is because we have successfully killed our small cinema.

Due to the OTT, audience lost interest in watching the small cinema in theaters. It has become like only star films and big action spectacles are for theater watch. By doing only such films, our stars have inculcated the opinion in the minds of the audience subconsciously.

During the COVID, the OTT Platforms looked down on the Malayalam films and were after the stars. There were no buyers for their films and so, they depended only on theaters. Hence, their theater ecosystem survived.

Now, the OTTs are offering good money for their films as well. If not for the OTT greed, Small films of Telugu would have the 200 Crore potential like Vaazha 2 in Malayalam.

Mythri is also a key player in upping the game in the name of Big Revenues only for Big Movies. They should also take the blame for increasing budgets and remunerations.

During the OTT boom, Producers competed each other in increasing the remunerations just to get dates. Mythri can not play good Samaritan now.

A hero who is yet to taste success in his short career was without work since 2023. He recently started a film with an NRI Producer with a forgotten director. We are told that the movie is being made on a budget of 20 Crore.

The director is being paid 1.5 Crore which is astonishing. The director had his last release in 2018. The Project does not guarantee even 5 Crore Business in current circumstances. What is the logic behind this project?

A new producer was offering an upcoming hero Seven Crores Remuneration. The hero is only charging 4 Crore right now. When asked about it?

“Two of his last three films are big hits. It is our responsibility to increase his market,” the producer said.

Directors definitely have responsibility to keep the budget in control as Ravi suggested. But the mindset of Producers need to change as well.

From big stars to medium-range stars, everyone is after action films. Why is no one doing a love story, a rom-com, or a family entertainer? Why Prabhas will not do a Darling now? We saw the thunderous response for the Re-release recently.

Why not a ‘Brundavanam’ kind of film for NTR? Why not an Arya for Allu Arjun? Everyone wants the Pan-India image but what is the success rate today in that segment. Take out Rajamouli from it and check where we stand in Pan-India.

And all these stars take minimum three years for a film. The audience will only come for the stars and the stars do not come to the theaters. How will the theaters survive? Who is to blame here? When the big films come, the producers quote untenable rates and buyers do not breakeven even if the movie does a 1000 Crore.

Peddi was not a big-screen action spectacle. It is a rooted village drama. But the rates will be on par for Pushpa 2. Where did the money go? Obviously into remunerations. For the buyers to make money, the movie should be nothing less than a blockbuster. There is no room for anything less.

Anything less, and the buyers will lose money. So what happened to all that waiting for a big star to arrive? The wait will not be worth it, and the theaters will continue to suffer.