It has been more than a year since the coronavirus pandemic set its foot in India. To this day, the film industry is in the doldrums. If any industry in India is doing well, it's Tollywood alone. And it's not all green shoots even in Tollywood.

It's said that a lot of distributors are wary about placing their bets on new releases. Unless they are sure about a film drawing audiences to theatres at least in the first weekend, they are not enthusiastic. 'SR Kalyanamandapam' was released on August 6 only because the producers did the job of convincing the wary exhibitors and distributors. 'Paagal' could be released because of Dil Raju's backing. It was "own release", in any case.

'Raja Raja Chora' did well, but it was followed by the flop show called 'Sridevi Soda Center'. September will look up if 'Seetimaarr', to be released on the 10th, does well. It's releasing for Vinayaka Chavithi and so there is some hope. Before it arrives, '101 Jillala Andagadu' and 'Dear Megha' will release on September 3. However, both of them are small movies.

And what about big releases? Even a Telugu-only release like 'Acharya' is not confident because family audiences are yet to return to theatres. "Unless families return to theatres, those earning Rs 30,000 or so per month watch movies in theatres with their families, big movies will be scared," producer Bekkam Venugopal recently said.