Story telling could be an art else where. But in hero centric Tollywood the story writers have no say at all. Though top Telugu heroes cite lack of good stories as a reason for not doing more than one movie a year, story writers say it is just a pretext.
While a few writers claim that their stories are " modified" according to the image of the hero, there are others who reveal that directors themselves 'cook' up a story keeping in view the image of the star. Interestingly, Tollywood buys rights from Tamil, Malayalam or Hindi film industry for the stories.
"There is no dreath for good stories in Tollywood. The stars take more than Rs 1 crore for a movie while the story writer is paid merely Rs 3 lakh. The stars intimidate the young story writers saying this story is similar to some English movie. They doing everything possible to demoralise the youngstory writers" says Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao, popular story writer in Tollywood and member of Writers association.
A few star directors have even become story writers. Puri Jagannath,Chandrasekhar Yeleti, Shekhar Kammula, Chandrasekhar Sidharth are a few celeb directors who write stories for their own movies.Director Rajamouli's father writes story for him. Heores prefer to listen to them than new strory writers.Writers say this is also a reason why they are not ' heard' by the heroes.
"Though we have wonderful stories in hand. Heroes don't listen to them at all. Top directors approach the heroes and explain them the story 'dramatically' and convince them. Unlike a few years ago, now heroes anddirectors call the shots and we are helpless. " Venkateswara Rao says.Writers say story is thought of only after hero, heroine, director and music director are fixed. They complain that heroes don't believe in the concept of'story'.
"The producer approaches the hero, heroine, director and the rest of thecrew. Depending on the marketability of the star, they cook up some story.The story should have four songs, one item song, five comedy scenesirrespective of the storyline and three fights. They weave some story themselves around the characters depending on the image of the star. Forinstance, after the movie 'Dhee' starring Vishnu was a success, several movies followed with comedy entertaining stories. There is absolutely novalue for the story in Telugu cinema" says Venkatanarayana, story writer and director of the movie 'Cell'.
Writers who are tired of going around heroes explain how their stories aremodified according to the whims and fancies of the stars. They say ourheroes don't want to experiment with the 'self proclaimed image' and lack basic cinema knowledge.
"If we take the top 10 heroes of Tollywood and the movies they made, not asingle movie story of theirs is worth watching. Of all the movies Chiranjeeviacted in, hardly two have innovative scripts and worth watching. In this hero dominated industry, once we give them a story, we have to forget it.They make the maximum changes depending on the wish and image of thehero. Our heroes consider jumping from 16th floor, bashing up hundredpeople or dancing with the heroine in European ice as great scripts. Theydon't know about our own cinema, lack basic knowledge on literature.
A classic example to this is latest flick Billa. They bought the remake rights ofa remake movie. There are thousands of good stories in Tollywood and theydon't want to take them up. 'Naa oopiri ' was a wonderful movie starringNaveen in the lead role. If the same film was done by Mahesh Babu orPavan Kalyan, that good concept would have clikced with the audience"says G Vijayasarathi, a young director and story writer.
While a few writers claim that their stories are " modified" according to the image of the hero, there are others who reveal that directors themselves 'cook' up a story keeping in view the image of the star. Interestingly, Tollywood buys rights from Tamil, Malayalam or Hindi film industry for the stories.
"There is no dreath for good stories in Tollywood. The stars take more than Rs 1 crore for a movie while the story writer is paid merely Rs 3 lakh. The stars intimidate the young story writers saying this story is similar to some English movie. They doing everything possible to demoralise the youngstory writers" says Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao, popular story writer in Tollywood and member of Writers association.
A few star directors have even become story writers. Puri Jagannath,Chandrasekhar Yeleti, Shekhar Kammula, Chandrasekhar Sidharth are a few celeb directors who write stories for their own movies.Director Rajamouli's father writes story for him. Heores prefer to listen to them than new strory writers.Writers say this is also a reason why they are not ' heard' by the heroes.
"Though we have wonderful stories in hand. Heroes don't listen to them at all. Top directors approach the heroes and explain them the story 'dramatically' and convince them. Unlike a few years ago, now heroes anddirectors call the shots and we are helpless. " Venkateswara Rao says.Writers say story is thought of only after hero, heroine, director and music director are fixed. They complain that heroes don't believe in the concept of'story'.
"The producer approaches the hero, heroine, director and the rest of thecrew. Depending on the marketability of the star, they cook up some story.The story should have four songs, one item song, five comedy scenesirrespective of the storyline and three fights. They weave some story themselves around the characters depending on the image of the star. Forinstance, after the movie 'Dhee' starring Vishnu was a success, several movies followed with comedy entertaining stories. There is absolutely novalue for the story in Telugu cinema" says Venkatanarayana, story writer and director of the movie 'Cell'.
Writers who are tired of going around heroes explain how their stories aremodified according to the whims and fancies of the stars. They say ourheroes don't want to experiment with the 'self proclaimed image' and lack basic cinema knowledge.
"If we take the top 10 heroes of Tollywood and the movies they made, not asingle movie story of theirs is worth watching. Of all the movies Chiranjeeviacted in, hardly two have innovative scripts and worth watching. In this hero dominated industry, once we give them a story, we have to forget it.They make the maximum changes depending on the wish and image of thehero. Our heroes consider jumping from 16th floor, bashing up hundredpeople or dancing with the heroine in European ice as great scripts. Theydon't know about our own cinema, lack basic knowledge on literature.
A classic example to this is latest flick Billa. They bought the remake rights ofa remake movie. There are thousands of good stories in Tollywood and theydon't want to take them up. 'Naa oopiri ' was a wonderful movie starringNaveen in the lead role. If the same film was done by Mahesh Babu orPavan Kalyan, that good concept would have clikced with the audience"says G Vijayasarathi, a young director and story writer.
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