Tollywood's corrupt cop: The story behind Telugu hero avatars

Forever, we saw the Telugu cinema hero don several avatars. One such avatar is that of the cop. He was the merciful cop, the rowdy cop, the strict cop, the romantic cop, the timid cop, the funny cop and even the undercover cop – but each avatar he donned showed him as a symbol of eternal good who could do no wrong. But that was a thing of yesterday! And all that was changed by two recent Telugu flicks – ‘Pataas’ and ‘Temper’.

Both the actioners redefined the meaning of a cop in our end of the cinematic world. With corruption like never before and characters you would love to hate, here’s why our filmmakers have decided to give the new age cop a makeover.

Anil Ravipudi, director of recent hit ‘Pataas’, says, “The main reason I showed Kalyan Ram as a corrupt cop was because I wanted to show both sides of the police.

In contrast to his role was that of Sai Kumar’s.” Vakkantham Vamsi, the story writer of recent release ‘Temper’ where NTR plays a corrupt cop for most part of the film, says that when the hero plays a role with grey shades, there are more chances to exp l o r e . “There’s no need to restrict yourself when you a design a character.

You can explore more if you have the negative aspect of him (the character) in place,” he reasons. Anil agrees and adds that the presence of bad elevates the good. “When people see good and bad together, the good is seen as something more sacrosanct.

That is exactly what I portrayed in my film,” he says. And the best thing about being the corrupt cop is that it provides scope to create an interesting journey of transition, he adds.

“When the good affects Kalyan Ram in the film, the story takes a turn. He experiences an epiphany and understands that all the sacrifices made by police over the years weren’t in vain.”

His views are echoed by Vamsi. “Daya (NTR in Temper) feels he’s causing no harm with his actions. But when he realises that one of his actions affect a young girl, he goes through an emotional upheaval, ensuing in the birth of a moral Daya.” T h e n there’s the fact that people easily connect to the negative character better than the positive character.

“The dialogues and words of a hero generally attract audience. While his messages may not make a difference, if he himself goes through the travail of discovering good after the bad, they like it more,” observes Vamsi, adding, “Every person has two sides to him- good and the bad.

Daya might be representation of evil in ‘Temper’ but Murthy’s (Posani Krishna Murali) character is a reflection of Daya’s goodness. It is the same reason why Daya doesn’t squabble with Murthy in the first half as he knows that the latter is an upright constable.”

“The bad easily attracts and so it is easy to get the grip of the audience and thus the message we want to dish out will always be the icing on the cake,” Anil sums it up. Good or bad, the Telugu cinema cop, especially when it is the hero, has always been looked up to. And today, we have the new avatar that is here to entertain us.