Recounting a previous conversation where he expressed the problem with Hindi cinema is that it uses too much money, in a recent conversation with THR India, Rana Daggubati explained how now his view on the same has not changed, but drew a distinction he sees between how large budgets support Telugu films versus how they lend to Bollywood films.
Daggubati, when asked whether the same problem — too much money — now applies to Telugu cinema given the scale at which films like Varanasi are being mounted, compared the two on the basis of how the budget is spent. "Here (Telugu film industry), a lot of money is spent on the making of the film."
Daggubati pointed to Baahubali as a reference point, adding that even on a film of Varanasi's scale, the cost of talent is relatively less in proportion to what is being spent on the actual movie.
"If you just go back to budgets of films like Baahubali, and if you take Varanasi also today, the cost of talent is very little, in the scheme of what the scale of the film is and how much is spent on the sets."
The distinction the actor-producer drew is between above-the-line spending — on stars, directors, and other talent — and below-the-line spending on production itself.
Elaborating on his point, Daggubati explained how a majority of Telugu cinema even today is made on borrowed funds, thereby making the drive to succeed in theatres even higher.
"These (Telugu films) are also not funded films, there are borrowed money films even now. There's really very few studios that fund stuff without interest — I can say maybe 10 per cent of films here happen without interest. Whereas it's the other way around there (Hindi cinema). Here, there's one general thought into it: 'Listen, you have to make this money back in the cinemas.' That heat is always there."