Year long shootings, a trend in Tollywood now!!

Once known for its quick and efficient shooting schedules that wrapped up in less than two months, Tollywood is now heading the Bollywood way. Directors, in a bid to play safe, are stretching their shooting schedules for as long as two years, just so that they can release a “better product”.

And if this year’s top grossers are anything to go by, Tollywood is fast bidding goodbye to the quick, shoot-can-pack up method. While Arundhati and Magadheera were under production for more than two years, the more recent Arya2, Saleem, Aa Aaa Ee Eee and Leader boast of shooting schedules that extend up to a year and a half.

Daggubati Rana who is awaiting the release of his movie Leader, which was shot for over 18 months says, “A lot of attention is being paid to every minute detail. Earlier a project could be wrapped up in just 30 days. But now, the first schedule of a film itself goes on for a month. Everyone wants to offer quality films, so it is bound to take this long.”

Apart from this quest for quality, stars’ choc-a-block schedules also play a major factor in these delays, admit directors. Most of the films that are being shot over long periods of time boast of big names who have multiple films in their kitty.

Sukumar, who directed Arya2, explains that since Telugu films are high on action sequences, apart from songs and emotional drama, it takes time to shoot them.“It took us 140 days to shoot Arya2. The main reason for the prolonged shooting schedule is the fact that the film has a lot of masala. Besides, as directors we need a break between scenes since there is a lot of emotional variance in them,” Sukumar says. Actor Manchu Vishnu, who is gearing up for his much-delayed film Saleem, says that the film’s extended schedule could be attributed to the break he took for his wedding and his co-star Illeana’s injury.

“Moreover, the fact that we didn’t want to compromise on quality added to the delay. Since the stakes are high, we cannot afford to make blunders. We selected the best locations and shot shot the film for 85 days in Europe,” he adds