Kannappa Karnataka distributor Rockline Venkatesh: 'Theatres are shutting down; big films help sustain them'

Vishnu Manchu’s Telugu original mythological drama Kannappa is releasing in theatres on April 25. The film, directed by Mukesh Kumar Singh, follows the legend of Kannappa, an atheist-turned-devotee of Lord Shiva. The film team, led by Vishnu, who plays Kannappa, was in Bengaluru recently, along with producer-distributor Rockline Venkatesh, who will distribute it in Karnataka.

Kannappa is being released as a pan-India venture in 5 languages – Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, and Hindi, with all versions to get screens in the state. At a time when there are multiple Kannada films set for release week-on-week in theatres, a film like Kannappa and other big-ticket other language movies, are a major constraint for the former. Since Venkatesh is a Bengaluru-based producer and distributor, he was asked about this issue.

Rockline Venkatesh: Big films help reopen theatres that were shut for lack of business

“I choose to answer this as an exhibitor and not as a producer or distributor. Everyone should be aware that one of the biggest issues plaguing the industry is that movie theatres are shutting down owing to a lack of commercially-viable films at regular intervals that can sustain them. There have been instances when the arrival of big-ticket films has led to the reopening of certain theatres. I have seen that happen in B & C centres during the release of my film Kaatera, for instance; theatres that had been locked up for a lack of business, were opened for us,” explained Venkatesh.

The filmmaker added, “How many of these ‘big’ films are releasing in a year? As an exhibitor, I know that there are not enough to sustain theatres. Theatres with 10-11 screens are operating with some of them closed. We actually have enough theatres for everyone, but not enough films,” he adds.

The issue, says Venkatesh is that if there is a Kannada film that has done, say, 2-3 weeks in theatres and then a big movie comes along, multiplexes tend to cut down shows of the former. But that happens only when the distributor does not have the capacity to hold on to the screen/show count, he reckons.