Battered reputations, bruised egos litter southern cinema

The southern film industry is doing things, typically south Indian style, as expected in show business. Chennai and Hyderabad movie moguls are yet unsure as to what hit them, as the recent Sankranti releases have ripped apart the cocoon in which they existed, seemingly oblivious of how the rest of the celluloid world is functioning across the country.

The releases of the A-listers in Telugu disappointed big time. ‘Victory’ Venkatesh’s film with Anil Ravipudi, called as the marathon hitmaker with 8 successful releases was a consolation. That is by now a development which was not very surprising for the Telugu film market as the see-sawing nature of the business has seen it many times earlier too. What has kept the buzz levels going is the terrible failure of showman Shankar directed Ram Charan-Kiara Advani starrer ‘Game Changer’, which true to its title upturned everyone’s fate who were associated with the film all these days.

Mega upsets for hyped up films which ride on the brand equities of its helmsman and the star cast is actually nothing new. But the rapidity with which the scion of megastar Chiranjeevi, Ram Charan was positioning himself in pan-Indian cinema genre surely took a massive dent with the flop status of his latest release which had generated huge expectations all through its production phase.

With family member and fellow star Allu Arjun reaping the whirlwind as his ‘Pushpa 2’ is still rocking the box-office raising an astounding collection running to nearly Rs 1800 crore ( filmi website Sacnilk data) in nearly seven weeks, Ram Charan’s fans are naturally distraught at this massive setback of their hero’s film.

Tamil director Shankar, who has enjoyed a high brand recall in neighbouring Hyderabad is accused of recycling his earlier hits, stretching an outdated story thin and massacring the production estimates with his exorbitant shooting styles and schedules. With Chennai and Bengaluru warming up to Telugu cinema since ‘Baahubali’ a decade ago, the earlier calculations of the southern market to tap the craze for the director’s films went up in smoke as both the centres rejected the Telugu original flick.

While the income tax raids and news of producer Dil Raju under huge stress due to the debilitating loss of his current venture, once again for the nth time, the all-knowing social media pundits and the tiresome tinsel world watchers keep harping on the fact that the movie watching habits have all changed and everyone knows about it in recent post-Covid years, except those who create content for the ever-hungry audience.

It is no doubt true that global cinema is available for anyone with a mobile phone and a decent bandwidth connectivity. Yet, local cinema makers seem to be forgetting that the moment they stray from the basics, which is translated as effective, entertaining storytelling being the backbone of box office success they are doomed to crash. No amount of glamour, garnishing and grandeur will make up for poor scripts and muddle-headed narration.

The transition phase for the big two of Indian cinema – Kollywood and Tollywood – as they are popularly called is a long, painful process by now. The 60+ and 70+ stars still seem to be in the hunt as they were when they were genuinely young long time ago.

High payouts by way of star remunerations and ramped up production costs have squeezed out the margins which has sounded the death knell for the people at the lower end of the chain, meaning the distributors and exhibitors. Crisis management is taking place furiously, as ever, with the losers licking their wounds in private and still conducting success meets. The more things change, the more they stay the same…. A statement which suits the present condition of the moviewalas to the T.