Sandalwood faces recession

As the global economy is going through one of its biggest slump period, the effect is reflecting on Sandalwood too. Even�star-studded films are failing to gain momentum and films with newcomers are generating only 10-15% of the costs.

Producer K. Manju, whose big budget film Rajakumari failed at the box office recently, speaks about the issue. "The massive drop in collections has been a matter of huge concern for us. You can say even the quality of Kannada films has come down. Business continues to slide downwards with each passing day. We don't know what has really happened to this industry which saw a golden revival in 2006."

Manju was speaking�on behalf of�all�producers in Sandalwood at a time when films like Nam Yajamanru, featuring Vishnuvardhan and Veera Madhakari, featuring Sudeep are performing�miserably at the box office. Veera Madhakari opened with 80-85% collection�which dropped sharply from the next day.

"We are worried. A couple of producers recently met informally to discuss the issue. The position is so bad that even�financiers are wary of investing money in the market. Each Friday, we�hear stories of producers losing money. In the last three months, only�Junglee was a big success, while�Ambari was able to just recover the investment. According to my estimate, producers and distributors have lost more than Rs. 60 crores,” producer K.C.N. Kumar said.

Now one of the most worrying factors for producers is that though this is recession time, the stars are not yet ready to reduce their fees. Plus theatres are also not ready to reduce the rentals in consideration of the economic worries.