Maaveeran makes a yummy offer

TIRUCHY: Not wanting to take chances with its profits, a theatre in the district has come up with a novel idea to draw crowds for a Telugu-dub Tamil movie. Anbu Theatre in Lalgudi is offering free ice cream and popcorn to watchers of ‘Maaveeran’ starring Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi’s son Ram Charan Teja.Distributors and theatre owners in the district, who released ‘Maaveeran’, expected a huge collection, since most of the action movies dubbed from Telugu have done well in the Central districts of the State.As ‘Maaveeran’ was dubbed from Telugu movie ‘Magadheera’, which was a box office hit in Andhra Pradesh, theatre owners here too screened it expecting a huge turnout. However, the film, released here on May 23, did not attract much crowd as expected.Anbu theatre in Lalgudi is one of the three cinema halls which screened the film in the district.The theatre manager said: “The original movie, ‘Magadheera’, was a roaring success in Andhra Pradesh. Usually, such dubbed films fetch good profit since the investment is not very high. We were optimistic since this film is a commercial one with a good mix of romance and action. But, the first week’s collection was disappointing and in the second week, only a few turned up. Since, we have invested several lakhs in the movie, we can’t afford to stop screening it. So, we thought of giving something free to lure people. As such, we came up with the free ice-cream offer. Those who come first will get free ice creams and late comers will get popcorn,” he clarified.He claimed that the response after the announcement was good. “The turnout has improved a lot. There were only a few dozen people till Wednesday, but now, about 100 to 150 people turn up at every show. Now, we are confident that we can get back our investment in the movie,” he added.