While the whole world is waiting with bated breath to catch a glimpse of ‘Dookudu’, the cast and crew of the film were straining their nerves reportedly to make up for the poor re-recording and substandard printson the eve of its release on Thursday. Touted to be the biggest film in Mahesh Babu’s career, costing a year of his call-sheets, ‘Dookudu’ has been encountering stumbling blocks for a while now. The Censor Board rejected the final copy when it was first approached on September 20, saying it’s rough.
The next day, the makers presented the DI print and got U/A certificate. They even dispatched the digital prints immediately after certification to places abroad like Los Angeles, Atlanta, Birmingham and et al. But the news regarding the poor quality prints sent shock waves through the unit. The result — they were spotted holding talks and slogging at the last minute for swapping the prints. As per the last reports, the prints were dispatched from the Ramanaidu Color Lab.
“The post-production works conducted simultaneously with the shoot resulted in the delay in the film’s release. And then, the ongoing Telangana agitation forced us to seek security at theatres where the film is to be screened,” producer Ram Achanta admitted. The producers recently met chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy to urge for the same. But then, the Dasara holidays beginning September 27 are said to come as a relief for the movie unit.
The Mahesh Babu and Samantha starrer is confirmed to be hitting 650 screens (and might go up to 700) in Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad (69), Uttarandhra (54), Nizam (207), Guntur (15). It is being released in a record number of 79 theatres in USA and 41 in Tamil Nadu (21 alone in Chennai and suburbs).
The makers are leaving no stone unturned to promote it and filed it from movie pirates. They planned benefit shows everywhere apart from special screening for families and students abroad. A special show at BITS-Pilani campus is in the pipeline. The Prasads multiplex alone is to screen 24 shows today and 14 tomorrow. Hordes of youngsters, girls in particular, made a beeline at the multiplexes in the city in the wee hours of Wednesday for claiming their stake as part of advance bookings. Surprisingly, all the tickets were sold out within half-hour.
In all, about 2,500 tickets are said to have been sold on the first day of advance bookings. The Srinu Vaitla’s production is introducing John Doe to the Telugu cinema, taking a cue from Ajay Devgn’s ‘Singham’.
“A John Doe order basically is given against an unknown person because the copyright owner doesn’t know who is going to infringe. It allows us to serve cease and resist notices on movie pirates pirating our film and also covers Internet service providers and not just people selling pirated DVDs or cable operators,” elucidates Anil Sunkara, one of the producers.
As part of the anti-piracy campaign, the makers appointed 20 persons to keep tabs on film pirates and also called for the Mahesh Babu fan clubs to lend a helping hand in the mission. The Principal District Judge Court in Prakasam is learnt to have issued an injection against those contributing to piracy. The makers, however, were not available to comment on the rumours regarding bad prints and poor re-recording.
Advance bookings
• The advance bookings for this Srinu Vaitla production commenced at 10 am on Wednesday in all the69 theatres in the city and the 54 theatres in Uttarandhra
• In Tamil Nadu, it will be released in 21 screens in Chennai and suburbs.