Heroes caught in 'image' trap

This year has been better for Tollywood than last year, but producers have suffered greater losses this year. Sources from the industry confirm that Singanamala Ramesh, who produced Komaram Puli starring Pawan Kalyan, and Khaleja starring Mahesh Babu, both box office duds, left the producer with a loss of Rs 30 crore!

Nagarjuna’s Kedi went unnoticed, and Venkatesh’s Namo Venkatesha managed to break even with difficulty. Producers who mortgaged all their property to make movies with Mahesh Babu and Pawan Kalyan, who haven’t had releases for the past three years, are in deep debt now.
Directors attribute poor story lines, over confidence and the ‘image’ trap of the stars as reasons for such big flops. The industry has lost `100 crore on big star movies this year. Pawan Kalyan’s movie cost Rs35 crore and barely managed to collect Rs15 crore and Mahesh Babu’s Khaleja with a budget of `40 crore couldn’t collect more than `25 crore. Big stars in Tollywood are taking years to churn out clichéd, unwatchable, predictable movies costing exorbitant amounts that lead to bankruptcy of the producers when they fail to make good.

Of the 83 movies that hit the screens this year, three were hits and six managed to break even, which is not a great success ratio, say film experts. While Simha, Maryadaramanna, Yem Maya Chesave , Darling, and Betting Bangarraju were hits, films such as Jhummandi Nadham, Leader, and Bindaas managed to break even. Dubbed movies such as Robot, Yuganiki Okkadu, Yamudu and Awara raked in more moolah than the big movies of Tollywood.

“Story lines are very weak and there is nothing new in these films. Big stars are not accessible to innovative new directors and only agree to do films with directors who are their close friends. This is costing the producer a bomb and the movies are bombing at the box office,” says director Jaya.Junior NTR, who recently released Brindavanam, which only barely managed to break even thanks to lack of competition, said that he wants to do a different kind of cinema to avoid being caught in the image trap but he can’t come out of that trap.“I will only do movies that suit an image. I can’t step out of it completely. I will try to do innovative roles only within the boundaries of my image,” NTR says, a sentiment typical of the big heroes of Tollywood who won’t try innovative movies. Sources say that these actors are mislead by their coteries to guess what their fans want. This traps them in an image that is proving to be Tollywood’s bane. Unlike the Tamil film industry, which is open to innovation, Telugu heroes refuse to do out-of-the-box movies.

“Producers are being taken for a ride by a few heroes and directors. Producers blindly believe in top heroes and top directors and spend crores on their movies. The output is a movie with a predictable plot and no value for money. Why will the audience come to such films?” says Sreedhar Reddy, director of Snehageetham.Though many industry personalities share the opinion that Tollywood is bleeding due to excess hero-domination and lack of creativity, they shy away from going on record to say so for fear of the consequences in an industry where sycophancy rules.