News channels mockered in cinema!!

The sudden rise of TV media and 24/7 news channels has not just revolutionised the broadcasting scenario in the country, but also given a host of ideas to our filmmakers who are making movies with the TV media as a base. The way news is reported and hyped, the craving for TRPs and the pressure and vulnerabilities of the TV crew, all lend themselves to perfect script material for our writers and directors.

Be it Rann, Peepli live or several Telugu movies which have had spoofs on the TV media — news channels and their programmes are being spoofed in cinema. From RGV to Aamir Khan, everyone now seems to want to pick on the TV media. “Osama Bin Laden, Google, mobile phones and round the clock news channels were the biggest impact makers on our lives in the last decade. The way these channels function make for great humour and since people watch news, they relate to this subject. Which is why Ram Gopal Varma was fascinated with the idea of making a movie on them,” says Madhu Manthena, the producer of Rann.

Tollywood made an early debut into comedy skits with live shows on TV channels that are satires on news programmes. Comedians Venu and Venky frequently perform the Kukatpally lo Kukka — a skit on how news channels make a hue and cry about a dog’s tail.” Our act on how a TV reporter makes a hue and cry over a dog’s crooked tail was very well received. People attributed it to a few channels,” says comedian Venu.

Movies like Sainikudu, Pokiri and Neninthe had comedians playing reporters eager to get scoops. Ravi Teja played a TV reporter in Aanjaneyulu that released a few months ago. Sources say an upcoming film starring Vishnu Manchu and Taapsee too has a spoof on TV media. Tollywood’s ace director Puri Jagannath who is popular for his comic sub-plots on news channels in his movies wanted to make a movie on the same subject, but not many actors were willing. Sources claim that Ram Gopal Varma’s Telugu movie after a gap of 12 years, Katha-Screenplay-Direction-Appal Raju has a comic track against news channels.

Film critic P Sarath Kumar opines that the over-reporting of TV channels is giving directors a chance to pick on them. “Directors want to settle scores with the paparazzi. Both are equally powerful media and to pick on one another is not a very healthy situation,” Sarath says.