MUMBAI: E-City Films has acquired the regional distribution rights for Shankar Dada Zindabad, a Telugu re-make of the box-office blockbuster, Lage Raho Munnabhai.

E-City Films has acquired the distribution rights for three sub-territories Vizag, Krishna and Guntur, which forms part of Coastal Andhra Territory and comprises 29 per cent of the total State market of Telugu movies. This is the first regional and largest ever distribution rights acquisition for E-City Films. The company sees the regional Telugu market as having a lot of potential and is looking at acquiring another three-four big-banner Telugu films this year.

With Chiranjeevi essaying the role of Sanjay Dutt, the film will be released with over 100 prints. Shankar Dada Zindabad was preceded by Shankar Dada M.B.B.S in 2004.

Directed by Prabhudeva under the Gemini Film Circuit banner, the film also stars Karishma Kotak, Shayaji Shinde, Sadha, Srikkanth, Dilip Prabhavalkar and Pawan Kalyan. Shankar Dada Zindabad is scheduled to release in July.

The Telugu film industry account for over one per cent of the gross state domestic product of Andhra Pradesh and is also creating one of the biggest markets for Indian cinema across the world. In a $6 billion Indian film industry, Hindi films command a 30 per cent market share compared with releases in Tamil at 20 per cent and Telugu at 18 per cent. The regional Telugu market has seen unprecedented expansion in the last two decades, growing nearly 100 per cent every five years.