Will Telangana Allow Special Ticket Rates for Raja Saab?

Will there be special rates for Raja Saab premieres in Telangana? This is the doubt currently prevailing among pan-India hero Prabhas fans. The main reason for this is that last month, the issue of Nandamuri Balakrishna’s film Akhanda 2 premieres along with ticket rate hikes reached the court. Due to court orders, doubts arose over the premieres till the last minute. At the same time, issuing separate GOs for premieres and ticket rate hikes for every film, and some people approaching courts over this, has been creating last-minute hurdles every time. On the other hand, when the Akhanda 2 controversy arose, Telangana Cinematography Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy stated that the ticket rates of this film were increased without his knowledge and announced that there would be no ticket rate hikes in Telangana henceforth. Earlier as well, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy announced this in the Assembly, but even then it was negated. As a result, whether Minister Komatireddy’s words will truly be implemented, or whether, as usual, ticket rates will once again be increased for Raja Saab and other films, remains to be seen.

However, among the films releasing this Sankranti, it can be said that Raja Saab is the only big-budget movie. There was talk that the unit of Manashankara Varaprasad Garu movie, directed by Anil Ravipudi, was not thinking of going for ticket rate hikes. However, this film unit has also applied in Telangana for premieres along with ticket rate hikes. For Manashankara Varaprasad Garu premieres, a ticket rate of ₹600 has been proposed. It is being said that the remaining films intend to go ahead in Telangana with the old rates only. Meanwhile, the Raja Saab film unit has already applied to the government seeking permission for premiere shows along with special rates in Telangana. Accordingly, ticket prices of ₹1,000 in multiplexes and ₹800 in single screens have been proposed for premieres.

This is the first film to be released in the Sankranti season. While the movie is set to be released worldwide on January 9, arrangements have been made for premiere shows from the night of January 8. The film has already completed censor formalities, and the runtime is three hours and nine minutes. On the other hand, in Andhra Pradesh, it is believed that there will not be many hurdles for premieres and ticket rate hikes. One reason for this is that Raja Saab producer T. G. Vishwa Prasad is known to be close to Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan. Additionally, the AP government has been consistently granting permission for ticket rate hikes for new films.