Now, this is a crucial one for Mahesh and he is teaming up with director Srinu Vytla of ‘Ready’ ‘Dhee’ ‘King’ fame for the first time.
While the shooting which is behind schedule is reportedly progressing at a brisk pace, here is some inside news which indicates that the film may have already scored a success before its release.
For starters, it is heard that MAA TV has bought the satellite rights for a whopping Rs 5.5 crores. Then there is news that a leading distribution company has bought the entire distribution rights for the Naizam area for a mind blowing Rs 9 crores. Something similar seems to have happened in Ceded area where a distributor has reportedly bought the rights for Rs 5.5 crores. Even outside Andhra Pradesh, the story is getting better with news that it was sold for Rs 2.1 crores in Karnataka.
Reports are arriving that some high figures have been spent in areas such as Kadapa, Guntur, East and West Godavari districts. Buzz is that barring Vizag, the distribution rights have been sold in almost all the key areas. As for the Krishna district and overseas market, the producers are keen on distributing the film by themselves. So, going by the statistics with this, the film has already made a revenue of Rs 30 crores only from distribution and satellite rights. Inside talk is that the film has been made at a budget of Rs 27 cr- Rs 30 cr.
However, one thing to note is that something similar happened when Mahesh Babu arrived with his earlier flick ‘Khaleeja’ and gave sore wounds to the distributors. But still, they are keen on taking a chance on him. On the industry point of view, the success of ‘Dhookudu’ is crucial since the other biggies ‘Shakti’ ‘Badrinath’ became massive duds. For now, the good side of ‘Dhookudu’ is it has been shot at unusual places like Istanbul, Rann of Kutch, Dubai etc. and the story is still a secret.
Slated to be an action cum comedy entertainer, the music is composed by S S Thaman and camera is being cranked by K V Guhan. The leading lady is Samantha and the producers are the trio of Achanta Ram, Anil Sunkara, Gopichand. This is being made under the banner of 14 Reels Entertainment. So, the big question is – Can ‘Dhookudu’ show some ‘Dhookudu’ at the box office??