Fresh faces flood Tinsel Town

A dozen girls have made their debut in Telugu filmdom in the last two months and are awaiting a golden future on the silver screen. Among the fresh faces are Shamili, Vimala Raman, Shreya Dhanwantari, Payal Ghosh, Madhhurima, Krithi, and Rinil Routh.

While a few film makers claim that it is the exorbitant remuneration of the existing actresses which is forcing them to try new faces, some claim they wanted to generate curiosity among the audience by doing so.

“I am comfortable working with freshers since this is my first movie as a director,” says Sreedhar Reddy, who is introducing five new actors in his upcoming film Sneha Geetham. “I tied up with a TV channel and radio station and selected them through auditions. It generated buzz about my movie.” He adds that many others too are trying new faces because senior actors have too many conditions.

Raj, who directed Boni, couldn’t agree more. Though he had plans to cast a big actress, he couldn’t since most of them had either no dates or remuneration was beyond the budget. “If you cast Genelia or Ileana, people have expectations,” he adds. “They may fail to deliver. But with a new actress, there won’t be that problem.”

All this has given much hope to the freshers. They are all set to give senior heroines a run for their money.“I was selected in an audition in Mumbai,” says Madhurima, a student of law who played the lead in Aa Okkadu. “My first movie has released and I have already signed another titled Mouna Ragam.” “In Bollywood if one is from an influential family or a star kid, it is easy to get roles,” she adds. “For me Tollywood seems to be a place where talent is honoured.” Madhurima is now working hard to pick up Telugu.

There are other debut actresses, who are planning to shift to Bollywood after gaining enough experience. “Working in Telugu movies gives me experience,” says Payal Ghosh, who got the lead role in Prayanam. “I have offers in Bollywood too. I am sure the experience will help me do well in Hindi films.”It is not just remuneration and lack of dates; film personalities claim that audience is also bored of seeing the same old faces on screen.

“In Tollywood somehow, the craze for a heroine doesn’t last long,” says Vijandar Reddy, secretary of the AP Film Chamber of commerce. “The audience wants to see fresh faces.”