Soon after the government of Telangana permitted ticket price hikes, almost every mainstream Telugu film enforced the same. Films like RRR and KGF 2 made the most of the same by hiking ticket prices and generating great revenues. But at the same time, the hikes have bogged down films like Acharya and Radhe Shyam.
Now, Sarkaru Vaari Paata has gotten off to a good start in the Nizam region, but the matter of concern is the footfalls. While the hiked prices are generating good revenues, they are also resulting in a depletion in footfalls.
The audience are not stepping out to watch a film until and unless it has a big event film appeal or it gets a unanimous blockbuster word of mouth. They are ready to reject a film blindly if it fails to deliver on both counts. Acharya is an example of the same.
So, the right thing for Tollywood to do is to go back on the ticket price hikes. With nominal prices, the footfalls will be higher and even if a film doesn’t get a unanimous response, there will be at least decent revenues. This won’t happen if the ticket prices are high as the audience will be least interested to watch a mediocre or a bad film by paying high ticket prices.