Ranna is all set to become the biggest Kannada film to be released on the fixed hire basis. This is common in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh especially for films of big stars. In this process instead of the producer or distributor paying rent, the individual theatres pay a fixed amount upfront. Then they are free to screen the film as long as they want in their theatre.

Sources said for Ranna more than 250 theatres have paid fixed hire already. Another 30 theatres will also pay up before release. In this system the distributor is on a relatively safer wicket. The system was used in a big time for the first time for the Tamil film Jeans 15 years ago.

This is the first time it is being used on such a large scale in Kannada. However the system May prove to be a problem for other films. All theatres that have paid fixed hire will not remove Ranna for at least 50 days minimum. So nearly 300 theatres will not be available for other films for almost two months.

This is likely to create scarcity of theatres. This will also be an opportunity for Kannada films to recover some more theatres that screen non-Kannada films.