The Telugu Film Producer's Council (TFPC) has enforced a new rule to regulate movie release dates after the postponements of "Baahubali", "Srimanthudu", "Rudhramadevi" and "Akhil" affected small-budget films.

The releases of some big-ticket dilm, including "Baahubali - The Beginning", "Srimanthudu", "Rudhramadevi" and "Akhil", were postponed several times in 2015. This trend has badly hit producers of several small-budget movies, which have failed at the box office.

The trend of postponement has caused huge losses to the makers of small-budget films, who had reportedly urged the producer's council to take necessary action. The council has now decided to control releases. It says if a producer is unable to release his film on the announced date, he/she should postpone the film by at least four weeks.

"Big films like 'Baahubali', 'Srimanthudu', 'Rudhramadevi' and 'Akhil' were postponed several times. Because of these postponements, exhibitors and small films are affected the most. So to keep things in order, the producers' council has decided that once a release date for a film is announced, the makers will have to stick to it," Deccan Herald quoted a source from the council as saying.

The council has taken the decision of regulating the release dates on 4 December and this new rule will come into force from 1 January, 2016. "Recently, everyone agreed to it during a meeting. Now, the Telugu producers want to put the releases in a streamline," said the source, adding, "It will allow small films to release during that time."

However, experts from the industry feel this new rule will hit Junior NTR's Sankranthi release "Nannaku Prematho". Andhra Box Office tweeted, "New rule from 2016 in Producer's council stating Biggies to stick to announced dates or Postponement is min 4Wks. Will hit #NannakuPrematho. (sic)"