Coronavirus crisis is taking a toll on Telugu Cinema industry that is staring at a loss of hundreds of crores of rupees due to the shutdown. As expected, producers are trying to minimize the effect by proposing cuts on the promised payments to the actors and technicians. First victims to suffer the blow due to crisis are top billed heroines of Tollywood.
Samantha was offered Rs 3 Cr for a female oriented thriller under the direction of Ashwin Saravanan. The producer is hoping that Samantha would agree to do the film for a reduction of remuneration given the circumstances. Pan South Indian actress Keerthy Suresh was signed up for Rajinikanth – Shiva film for a whopping Rs 2 Cr, but she may not get that in full because of the losses incurred due to coronavirus pandemic.
Same is the case with Tamanna, who was promised Rs 1.25 Cr for Gopichand’s upcoming movie. There would be reassessment of budgets of all the movies and the remunerations will be reduced for all actors and technicians accordingly. Shootings are expected to resume from July or August and there is a huge question mark hanging over the theatrical business given the stringent lockdowns that are expected to be extended for many weeks as India entered the third phase of the spread of virus.
