It is known that a dispute has erupted between Kalki producer Swapna Dutt and the overseas distributor, Prathyangira Cinemas, responsible for releasing the film in the USA, Canada and Europe.
Reports indicate that the distributor paid a refundable advance of Rs 50 crore for the USA and Canada on an agreement of a 20% commission on the share. The film performed well and collected a gross of Rs 156 Cr. Keeping this in view, Swapna Dutt claims that at least 60% of it would be the share which comes to an approximate Rs 93.61 crore. She comes to this conclusion based on what RRR (60%) and Bahubali 2 (65%) distributors got from the exhibitors.
Well, based on this, after deducting the 20% commission (Rs 18.7 crore aprrox), the distributor was to return Rs 75 crore. Having already paid Rs 50 crore in advance, he owed Rs 25 crore to the producer.
Much to the shock of the producer, Pratyangira Cinemas is offering only a 45% share, which has surprised the entire Tollywood industry.
However, more complications arose with Europe’s rights. The distributor had paid Rs 5 crore advance but claimed the film earned only Rs 2 crore there, demanding a Rs 3 crore refund from the producers. This is another shock to the producer.
Adding to the issue is a lack of transparency in Europe, where no tracking system like Rentrak (used in the USA) exists, leaving actual collections unverifiable.
A European distributor voiced skepticism, saying, “Baahubali 2 earned Rs 7 crore in share here, so Kalki collecting only Rs 2 crore is hard to believe. With increased Telugu population and strong turnout the figure should be much bigger. A deeper audit is necessary.”
Meanwhile, concerns about monopolistic practices in the U.S. have also surfaced. A regional distributor alleged that a key player in the Telugu film distribution market manipulates exhibitor chains, harming films not sold through him by allocating poor theaters and blackmailing producers silently, to sign deals only with him.
On the other hand, a leading USA distributor says, "If any movie is taken on a refundable advance and commission basis, it is the distributor's responsibility to secure the best rental terms, the best theaters, and recover the collected share. If the distributor claims they cannot pay the collected share to the producer due to an inability to recover their share from the theater, then the distributor is 100% at fault. In such a case, the producer does not need to pay any commission and can instead release the movie directly by dealing with the theaters."
He also continued, "At the same time, the majority of Telugu producers are greedy. If a distributor pays a refundable advance and the movie collects more than the advance, all is good. Otherwise, they often don’t even respond to calls or acknowledge requests for refunds after receiving settlement reports."
He concluded, "Due to the same reason, a major distribution company does not want to burn their hands as they had bitter experience in recovering their refundable advances earlier, who is know for sincere and disciplined in terms of finance settlements".
However, in this background, Swapna Dutt, the producer of Kalki has approached the Producers’ Guild in Hyderabad to investigate these discrepancies. The issue speaks about the urgent need for transparency in overseas markets to protect exploitation and disputes between overseas distributors and producers.
It is an alarm bell for producers who are signing the overseas agreements.
