Tamil film directors have mixed luck in Tollywood

The summer has, both figuratively and otherwise, set a scorching pace to the box-office race in Telugu film industry. The final BO figures for the magnum opus 'Baahubali-2', already crossing Rs 1,500 crore is still being computed, more than three weeks after it released.

However, the other icons of the film world are now queuing up with their offerings- with Mahesh Babu's 'SPYder' keenly awaited. The A R Murugadoss- helmed bi-lingual, as per last reports, is slated for Aug ust 11 release, coinciding with the birthday of the boyish – looking superstar.

For trend observers in southern cinema, it is a fascinating study to note that Tamil cinema directors have had success, more when their films were either dubbed or remade by local directors. ' Khaidi No 150', a recent hit of Chiranjeevi, a remake of Murugadoss-directed 'Kaththi' in Tamil would be appropriate to quote here.

However, when it comes to straight Telugu films, the Chennai craftsmen have often had issues with nativity. Other than Murugadoss, if one takes leading names like Gautham Menon, Dharani, S J Suryah et al, the same problem has been encountered by all of them.

Suryah, who is likely to be seen in the forthcoming Mahesh Babu starrer as a lead character, is an apt example. In the past fifteen years or so, his acceptance among the Telugu film viewers has swung between two extremes from a huge hit like Pawan Kalyan's 'Khushi' to crashing flops like 'Nani' and 'Puli'. Gautham Menon too has had a patchy record of having directed 19 films in multiple languages during the same time.

However, he too had his share of duds dampening the goodwill in the local field considerably. Linguswamy too is no major name in Telugu cinema, because his films were successes when dubbed or remade, not when he tried to wield the megaphone.

In this background, the news that K S Ravi Kumar, yet another titan of Tamil cinema is to join hands with Balakrishna will be watched with great interest. The last multi-lingual attempt of this director with 'Kichcha' Sudeep in Kannada and Tamil ( Kotigobba 2) was a non-starter in Chennai.