Ahead of the theatrical release of Ravi Teja's 'Eagle' on February 9, producer TG Vishwa Prasad markets 'Eagle' as a minimum guarantee movie that will satisfy the audience. In this interview, the People Media Factory supremo talks about the project at length.
Our initial plan was to release 'Eagle' in December last year. Then it was pushed to Sankranthi. Later, upon the request made by the Film Chamber, we moved the film to February 9 to avoid a clash with Sankranthi releases. We had about 250 confirmed screens and more than 100 were waiting to be confirmed in the Telugu States for Sankranthi. We had the second biggest release after 'Guntur Kaaram'. Ravi Teja was magnanimous to allow the movie to be postponed. The idea was to prevent films from stepping on each other so that damage to everyone could be minimized. We have always been confident about 'Eagle' doing well at the BO.
For Sankranthi, ours was the second most preferred movie (the first being 'Guntur Kaaram'). This February 9, ours is the most preferred movie. So, we are in a better position today due to the postponement. I am not saying anything against 'Yatra 2'.
We are going to come out with a Release Trailer this Saturday at a pre-release event.
Writer-director Karthik Gattamneni delivered what he promised us - a stylish mass action entertainer. The budget didn't go up. We know the market size. It's a low-risk project (given the genre and the star cast). Regardless of the promotions (Ravi Teja might not promote the movie aggressively), we are confident that 'Eagle' will mint opening collections in a certain range. After that, the rate of acceleration will vary (depending on 'word of mouth'). Unexpected market changes on the OTT front have happened. Those have been taken into consideration. This is an industry-wide issue not specific to any particular movie.
'Dhamaka' didn't get extraordinary ratings from critics. But the film did very well on the commercial front. With 'Eagle', we are coming armed with a very good story, spectacular action and even a mass song. To begin with, 'Eagle' is a Telugu-only release. The Hindi release will be planned later.
People Media Factory is going to release about six backlog movies this year. There are six other new projects up for release this year. Three to four of them have been shot in the US. In all, we have about 15 releases this year, including on OTT. Shwarnanand's movie will be out in June or so. Ravi Teja's 'Mr. Bachchan' and Sree Vishnu's 'Swag' will come out this year itself. We haven't taken over Pawan Kalyan garu's 'OG'. (He hinted that Prabhas' 'Raja Saab' might be a Sankranthi 2025 release).
I am involved at an intense level at People Media Factory. Earlier, we experienced leakages and wastage that started affecting the projects. We have set things right.
Our banner's mission is to complete 100 films the fastest. We are on this! About 40 projects are in different stages of being mounted.
There is no truth in the rumour that I and Vivek Kuchibotla are going our separate ways. Some people affected by the changes we have made at our banner have been spreading the falsehood. The speculations have been invented by those affected by the cleaning up at our organization. We have been fixing quality issues.
The rumoured collaboration between our banner and Trivikram Srinivas garu is not a new piece of news. We attempted to join hands with him and Pawan Kalyan garu years ago. Due to their busy schedules, the proposal has not materialized so far.
