Keerthy gives booster shot to women-centric movies

Undeniably, new-age star Keerthy Suresh has revived the sagging fortunes of female-centric movies by drawing sensational openings for her latest release ‘Mahanati’. Even though it is a biopic of the legendary actress Savitri, it is Keerthy’s makeover, hard work and riveting performance that has become the talk-of-the-town and raking in moolah and critical acclaim as well. “After a gap, a women-centric film isbeing celebrated in the two Telugu states and across the world.

Keerthy has silenced all her detractors with a mind blowing performance. Her make- over is outstanding. Shebrought Savitri back alive on-screen with her immaculate performance in varied looks and her energy is spellbinding,” says producer Bogavalli Prasad.

Just a few months ago, glam diva Anushka pulled off another hit film ‘Bhagmathee’ and gave a breather of sorts to the fading women-centric films. “Keerthy is the first new-age star to taste success with her maiden female-centric film and revived the sagging fortunes of heroine-oriented movies.

Now, other young actresses like Kaajal Agarwal and Tamannaah are also doing the remake of Hindi film ‘Queen’ in Tamil and Telugu respectively to try hand their hand in a female-centric genre, after shunning it for many years,’ says writer Gopi Mohan, admitted that flops like ‘Kartavyam’, `Dora’ and ‘Chitrangadha’made filmmakers to have second thoughts about making female-oriented movies. “Even the new-age divas who are mostly confined to glam prop roles, will try out author-backed roles to showcase their acting chops.

To move a few notches up in their career, this genre is here to stay,” he points out. More than a decade ago, it was Charmme( ‘Anaganaga Oka Roju’ and ‘Mantra’), Anuskha (Arundhati to Bhagmati) and Nayantara (Mayuri) and Anjali (Geethanjali) who proved that heroines can draw crowds on the strength of their names but lost thier way after some duds. “Actually, some actresses take up female-centric films in the last leg of their careers as offers with top heroes dry up.

So, they try to prove a point, but only a few succeed,” says producer C Kalyan, who terms Keerthy as the new ‘Queen Bee’of T-town. However, director Gunasekhar has a different take on this oscillating trend. “It’s not fair to blame actresses for poor scripts, just because a few women-oriented films tanked at the box-office due to lackluster plots, even though the actresses did a good job. Just one more female-centric blockbuster will reverse this trend,” he concludes.