Is Tollywood Wasting The Potential Of Summer Season?

There was a phase around 2005 when dubbed movies from Tamil and other languages used to rule the Telugu states’ box office. The movies like Chandramukhi, Ghajini, etc., used to pull in the audience in big numbers to theatres in united Andhra Pradesh, compared to most of the Telugu movies released around the same time.

The situation back then reached a level where a few people in the industry demanded the screening of dubbed movies. Cut to 2026, the same situation is slowly shaping up in Telugu states with Tamil & Malayalam movies doing well in theatres due to the lack of movies from notable Telugu stars.

Tamil film, Karuppu(Telugu – Veerabhadrudu) and Malayalam film, Drishyam 3, in the last few weeks utilised the void at the box office and made good money at the Telugu states’ box office.

Both the movies received mixed reviews and yet people watched them in theatres due to the lack of straight Telugu movies. During the summer, in most of the B & Centres in Telugu states, people prefer to visit an AC theatre in the afternoons to watch movies and to escape the scorching heat.

Since there are no notable Telugu movies, people opted to watch movies like Veerabhadrudu(Tamil to Telugu dub), Drishyam 3(Malayalam to Telugu dub) & Michael(English). The house full boards for Michael, an English film, in a few A centres of the Telugu states, explains the demand for notable movies in theatres among the audience. Even a film like, Blast Zone(Tamil to Telugu dub) with no big stars, is pulling the audience to theatres this weekend in good numbers.

In the name of Pan India movies, the big Telugu stars are releasing their movies once every two to three years. The impact of IPL is forcing the makers of medium-budget movies to stay away from releasing their films during the summer.

It is a pattern that has been continued for the last six years and if this situation continues for another year or two, most of the theatres in the Telugu states may be closed.

Is the concern that IPL is denting the movie business still valid? It may have been true until a few years ago but not anymore. If IPL still has the potential to dent the movie business during the summer, how did pretty average films like Karuppu and Drishyam 2, become blockbusters?

Yes, the evening and night shows during summer may get impacted to an extent due to IPL but makers of the Telugu movies should try to utilise the summer holidays by coming up with good movies and attention-grabbing promotional strategies.

IPL is here to stay. It’s not a wise decision to stay away from releasing the movies completely during the IPL period. The need of the hour is a strategic solution but not shying away from releasing the films at all.