In Telangana, Prabhas fans waited until late night on Thursday, January 8, without knowing whether there would be an increase in ticket prices for the Raja Saab movie or not. The same situation prevailed with regard to premieres as well. But only sometime late at night was a memo issued allowing a ticket price hike. Even then, bookings did not open. However, in the case of Chiranjeevi’s film, it happened differently. While this movie is releasing on January 12, the memo was issued by the morning of January 10. Why it was one way in Prabhas’s case and another way in Chiranjeevi’s case has now become a hot topic. On the other hand, in matters related to films, the Telangana government has been repeatedly contradicting its own orders. Not only that, despite the Telangana High Court directing that ticket price hikes should not be allowed through memos anymore, the government set aside those directions and issued another memo permitting a ticket price increase for Mana Shankara Varaprasad Garu, starring Chiranjeevi.
In the same memo, permission was also given for premieres on January 11. The price of each ticket was fixed at ₹600. While the Andhra Pradesh government fixed the special show ticket price at ₹500, the Telangana government decided on ₹600. From the day of the film’s release, permission was given to increase ticket prices for one week. Accordingly, they were allowed to increase prices by ₹50 including GST in single screens and by ₹100 in multiplexes. Another key point here is that in the case of Raja Saab, the government withheld the memo until midnight, but when it came to Chiranjeevi’s film, the memo was released by Saturday morning. Since January 10 was the second Saturday, followed by Sunday, there would be no opportunity for anyone to approach the court on this matter in haste. Therefore, discussions are going on that the memo was deliberately released in advance so that as many tickets as possible could be sold in the meantime and the objective achieved. Tollywood circles are also of the opinion that Mana Shankara Varaprasad Garu, starring Chiranjeevi, is not a big-budget film and that there is no need to increase ticket prices for it. Even so, both governments took a decision to hike the rates for this movie.
Recently, at the pre-release event of this film itself, Chiranjeevi made some key comments regarding the movie. He said that their film had already become a super hit. In what way? In terms of budget, it was within limits, and in terms of days, director Anil Ravipudi managed to complete it brilliantly in fewer days than expected, he announced. How can we say a film is a super hit? He explained that when a director keeps the entire film under his grip and completes it within the budget limit without exceeding it, that itself is the first success for any film. He said that very few films achieve this and that in this way, their film had achieved its first success. The Telangana government increasing ticket prices for this film as well, ignoring court orders, has now become a hot topic even in Tollywood.