The A-list heroes like Mahesh Babu, Pawan Kalyan, Ram Charan, Jr NTR and the likes do not guarantee a film’s success anymore. Many of their recent films have failed, losses mounting to several crores of rupees.

Producers are keen on working with the second rung heroes as in the last one and a half years, smaller films have done much better business when compared to big-budget ones.

“Medium-scale films are important. The industry can’t run only with big films. Theatres need to run and small films need to come,” says Teja.

Abhishek Nama, who has distributed many big/small films, feels that it is always good to go with small films. “You can’t bank on a big film — you never know it’s fate. They either give huge losses or marginal profits. A medium film is always safe,” says Abhishek.

He recently bought the rights of Supreme for Rs 26 crore. “It’s a profitable venture,” he says. He had earlier done the same for Kumari F21 and Krishnagadi Veera Prema Gaadha, both making huge money.

The distributer, however, had incurred huge losses after he bought the Nizam rights of Mahesh Babu’s Brahmotsavam.

“People are encouraging films with good content. The small film Bichagadu, which was bought for Rs 50 lakh, collected more than Rs 15 crore. So it’s not about the star, it is the story which is important,” he says.