E-City Films acquires distribution rights for 'Shankar Dada Zindabad'

Televisionpoint.com Correspondent
E-City Films has announced the acquisition of the regional distribution rights for 'Shankar Dada Zindabad', a Telugu re-make of the box-office blockbuster, 'Lage Raho Munnabhai'. With an all-star cast, and over 100 prints slated for release' this film is sure to be a smashing success at the box-office just like the original version. Shankar Dada Zindabad was preceded by Shankar Dada M.B.B.S in 2004.

E-City Films has acquired the distribution rights for three sub-territories Vizag, Krishna & Guntur which forms part of Coastal Andhra Territory and comprises of 29% of the total State market of Telugu Movies. This is the first regional and largest ever distribution rights acquisition for E-City Films.

E-City Films sees the regional Telugu market as having a lot of potential and is looking at acquiring further 3-4 big-banner Telugu films this year. The Telugu film industry account for over 1% of the gross state domestic product of Andhra Pradesh and is also creating one of the biggest markets for Indian cinema across the world. In a $6 billion Indian film industry, Hindi films command a 30% market share compared with releases in Tamil at 20% and Telugu at 18%, an press release informs.

With an average of 200-250 prints per release, the growth of multiplexes has also helped in pushing up box office collections, by using digital technology and by pushing more prints (upto 400 in some cases) in the market for the first week to reduce piracy. The regional Telugu market has seen unprecedented expansion in the last two decades, growing nearly 100% every 5 years.

Directed by Prabhudeva, with dialogues by the Paruchuri Brothers and a music score by Devi Sri Prasad, the star cast with Chiranjeevi playing the title role of Shankar Prasad, Srikkanth in a supporting role as A.T.M (Any Time Murder) and Pawan Kalyan in Abhishek Bachchan's role, under the Gemini Film Circuit banner, Shankar Dada Zindabad is expected to release amid much fanfare this July.

In addition, up-coming model Karishma Kotak will be essaying the role played by Vidya Balan; Sadha will play Dia Mirza's role and Shayaji Shinde playing the role that Boman Irani played in the original. Dilip Prabhavalkar will be playing the role of Mahtma Gandhi, just as he did in the original.

In addition to the aggressive interest shown in regional movie distribution, E-City Films, will also focus on distributing quality Hinidi and English film content in Gujrat, Nizam, Delhi/ UP and the Mumbai territories.