Hyderabad: Despite all the talks about manipulation of Telangana culture and step-motherly treatment meted out on aspiring filmmakers from the State by tinsel town titans from Andhra Pradesh, producers from Telangana region seem to be a tad cautious when it comes to spending money on region-based films, if the plight of majority of native directors are anything to go by.

Even though there are 200 directors registered with Telangana Film Directors’ Association, only 10 to 15 directors have work, while others are whiling away their time with no project at hand and hoping against hopes that someone will come to their rescue sooner or later.  Unlike business magnets, financiers and rich farmers of Andhra Pradesh who have been betting their money on films, rich people of Telangana are shying away from movies, thus leaving hundreds of directors jobless.

“Telangana has many rich farmers, landlords and businessmen and even NRIs, but most of them avoid investing in films since they still believe that filmmaking has an inherent-risk and would be difficult to recover their money,” says writer-director Prem Raj who feels that they haven’t understood filmmaking business per se.

“Cinema business is expanding since producers can recover their investment through satellite rights, dubbing rights and overseas rights along with distribution rights, but still they are wary of producing movies,” says director Chandra Siddarth, a Hyderabadi filmmaker. “With no big producer around, I am in talks with an NRI for my next film,” he adds.

Even though top Telangana directors like Harris Shankar, Sampath Nandi, Vamsi Paidipally and Surendar Reddy are busy with big-ticket films, majority of young directors are finding it difficult to find producers for their scripts. “There are only around 10 to 15 active producers from Telangana, so more producers should join, otherwise it will be daunting for aspiring filmmakers,” points out Siddarth.

Another young director on condition of anonymity says, “In Telangana, 10 people rush in to invest in a wine shop, but no one is willing to produce movies, that’s the irony of Telangana cinema. So only government funding could fill up this gap and provide work for young directors,” he quips.  

Admitting that there is dearth of producers, filmmaker Sana Yadi Reddy is planning to make a slew of movies to encourage new talent. “I have finalised a couple of scripts and going to launch two or three films soon, since I want to promote Telangana talent,” he adds.