Producer TG Vishwa Prasad of People Media Factory is adopting a factory model. He and Vivek Kuchibotla are going to produce 100 movies at the fastest-ever pace.
'Adipurush', to be released in theatres on June 16, is the banner's immediate next release. The Prabhas-starrer's Telugu theatrical rights have been acquired for the Telugu States by the banner.
In this interview, Vishwa Prasad talks about his banner's journey, future plans, and more.
'Adipurush' has been bought over for Rs 160 Cr (theatrical rights for AP and Telangana) plus GST. It comes down to Rs 185 Cr. The film is carrying a lot of buzz. 'Spirit', to be directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga, has also been acquired in Telugu by us. Both films feature Prabhas, the hero of our movie directed by Maruthi. So, in all, we are associated with him on three projects. We discussed the 'Adipurush' and 'Spirit' deals with Prabhas garu before going for them.
For single screens, we are permitted to hike 'Adipurush' ticket prices up to Rs 50 in the Telugu States. We might hike only Rs 25, though. We will make a decision after holding discussions with distributors/exhibitors.
We are soon going to hold an 'Adipurush' event in Seattle in the US. Prabhas won't be attending the event.
We want to produce 100 movies at the fastest clip. For now, we want to produce 25 movies. By the end of next year, we will hit 50. We are confident that we will be launching another 8-10 new projects by the end of this year. The new launches will help us get to the half-century figure.
Even though we are making a number of movies simultaneously, creative aspects are not an issue. We have developed a few internal processes. In the past 20 years, our learning curve has improved vastly. Our understanding is thorough. We won't be repeating mistakes.
A movie can fail regardless of collaboration with others. 'MLA' was a moderate hit. 'Silly Fellows' was a flop. Both movies were made in association with Blue Planet. 'Venky Mama' and 'Oh Baby' were done in association with Suresh Productions. Movies done in collaboration with Abhishek Agarwal Arts is going on. In every scenario, our banner is involved in mounting the project on all fronts.
Movies are a journey with both hits and misses. Failures have been prevented through constant learning. Goal-setting is the key. Don't set unrealistic goals, which can give you disappointment. We have to see setbacks as learning.
We are planning a few pan-Indian projects. In the next 2-3 years, we will be producing movies in other languages.
We are investing in a lot of areas in the cinema ecosystem. Investing in theatres is also on the anvil. We are making project studies. We will be investing in studio infrastructure as well. There is a 4-floor film university in Shamshabad where films like 'Bimbisara', 'Salaar' have already been shot. Currently, 5-6 major projects have been undertaken there. We already have a two-year-old end-to-end post-production set-up at Ramanaidu Studios.
We have a handful of projects in the pipeline in Bollywood. We will engage a lot of Hollywood technicians in the coming two years. Our eventual aim is to mount movies in Hollywood. But it is going to take time, considering pre-production takes a lot of time there. In 2018, we rented a property in Hollywood to work on a project. The pandemic put a spanner temporarily. We will resume our works soon.
Some projects were finalized owing to the power of combination. But we won't be following such a practice in the future.
My tech business is based in the US. Software has always been my top priority. Films are a matter of passion.
