The Telugu version of Kabali was a big flop in both the Telugu States, except in the film distribution zone called the Nizam area. Interestingly, people who bought the Telugu distribution rights made profits with this film because they sold to different local distributors, area-wise. The film rights, bought by new distributors KP Chowdhary and Praveen Varma for a whopping Rs 30 crores, included the satellite rights of the Telugu version.
Abhishek Pictures, which bought the Nizam area rights for Rs 8.5 crores, is the only one who reported marginal profits. “The Superstar and the film both got good hype, so the first three days of the bookings were almost full,” says Abhishek Nama. He added that from Monday onwards, collections dropped. “But I am safe,” he says.
In other areas, like Ceded and Andhra, the film was a big disaster. The distribution rights were sold on a non-recoverable basis, so local distributors cannot question losses. The satellite rights sold for nearly Rs 6 crore, so the main distributors got good profits from this film. Only local distributors lost money.
The Hindi version too was a disappointment.
