Tollywood is the latest place that Tamil film industry is headed for. Kodambakkam is witnessing an exodus to Tollywood (Ramoji Rao Film City), Telegu film industry is not in so great a shape with more flops in theaters and OTT. To offset it hopes to change the tide by joining hands with Kodambakkam,
Latest to join the actors to act in a Telegu film is Sivakarthikeyan. Thalapathy Vijay and Dhanush are those who are to do a straight Telegu film while Vijay Sethupathi has already made his mark as a baddie in Tollywood. Directors Shankar – Linguswamy- Mohan Raja are those who have signed Telegu films and started work. Many other top director’s are in talks with big production houses and actors for projects. Chennai Film trade unions are dumbstruck with majority of Tamil biggies shooting in Ramoji Film City.
Talk with a cross section of the Telegu film industry bigwigs it emerges that the primary reason for them to cast Tamil heroes is the acceptance by the Telegu audience of these heroes. The flashpoint was when Mersal of Thalapathy Vijay was released after the first wave in AP/TS. Despite the presence of Telegu heroes, Mersal did collect and gave profits. The film was bought by a top notch Andhra distributor Dil Raju also a producer of films. Having won at box office, it was natural that producers signed these heroes.
The additional business that Tamil heroes gave was the next incentive to cast them. The economics worked out better than casting a medium market Telegu hero for a producer. The risk factor was nil as the input money would be covered by Tamil trade returns. Add to this the OTT factor. A Tamil hero in a Telegu film gave wider acceptance in both languages. A Tamil film dubbed into Telegu or vice versa had only a limited pull than a bi-lingual film that caters to both regional tastes.
The major factor is that with mainstream producers signing up the Tamil heroes, there is fair play at the box office. The dirty game in theater allotments are not in place. Take the case where KGF 2 is said to be elbowing out Akhanda of Balakrishna in getting screens. It is something that was unbelievable a few months back.
After Kamal Haasan ( who lost it over a time), the only Tamil actor to have a Telegu market today is Suriya. Vikram did have it but somewhere along the line he lost it. Mammooty is another non Telegu actor who through his straight films has a market. Here too it is limited in reach as there are budget constraints and the choice of subjects by the actor is not the `mass’ type.
The pitfall that the Tamil heroes- directors who make the bi-lingual’ have to avoid is to not make it look very much a Telegu film ( over melodramatic and a dose of Telegu chauvinism – faction feuds). Any film that originates in Andhra and claims to be a bi-lingual will always be seen by Tamil viewers is suspect. Exception being Baahubali .
The work atmosphere too is another reason that Tamil film units are shooting in Hyderabad and Ramoji Film City. The arrogant union bosses (reined to great extent by Selvamani FEFSI Boss) and also that nature worked against the film units with Chennai going down heavily with Covid cases worked against them. Hyderabad on the other hand recovered faster as it had lesser Covid cases. Restricted entry to Film City and it being away from Hyderabad has helped it to bring in units from Chennai- Kochi.
A half yearly report of Telegu films show that 78 films were released in movie halls. Krack, Uppena, Jathi Rathnalu, Vakeel Saab ,Zombie Ready and Naandhini were hits. In the OTT, Ek Mini Katha,Cinemabandi and Ninnila Ninnla were hits. So far Telegu filmdom looked for technicians like cinematographers – stunt – dance choreographers. Now actors too being acceptable, Kodambakkam will further be shorn of the glamour.
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