Telugu Stars Not Seen in Tollywood Films - Exclusive Story

Probably it has been years, we have seen Telugu ladies playing the female leads in the films. We see the Kannadigas, Keralites, Tamils, and of course, the Northern beauties as female leads in our films but rarely, we come across the Telugu ladies like colors Swathi, Bindu Madhavi etc. While the import of heroines has become quite common, the trend did not stop with just heroines but went on with Villains, Singers, Music directors, Character artists and to the latest directors and actors too.

From past years, importing of villains from Bollywood has become a fashion. Ashish Vidyarthi, Atul Kulkarni, Rahul Dev, Mukesh Rishi, Pradeep Rawat, Sayaji Shinde, Sonu Sood, Dev Gill were few examples. Most of the above actors proved their mettle in the industry as good villains with physique. But one has to understand that the hero’s action gains interest only when the negative lead’s character creates shivers in the spine. A Villain needs to deliver his dialogues flawlessly with outstanding expressions. Unfortunately most of these Bollywood villains use dubbing voices and finally the film ends up with a missing magic.

Well, coming to the music directors, Tollywood has a special place for music directors hailing from Tamilnadu. Most of the popular music directors, Ilayaraja, A.R.Rahman, Harris Jayraj, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Thaman are a few to name. Let’s see the upcoming projects. The latest release ‘Orange’ is packed with Hariis Jayraj’s music. Now, Rana’s upcoming film, ‘Nenu Naa Rakshasi’ has three Bollywood music directors Vishal-Sekhar, Viswa and Pappi Lahari, son of famous Bollywood music director Bappi Lahari are scoring the music while Venky’s ‘Nagavalli’ has Kannada music director Guru Kiran.

Let’s take a look on actors and character artists. Is Prakash Raj a Telugu artist is a question for many. It is not surprising to hear that, one in three big releases will have Prakash Raj either as villain or a character artist role. The latest release ‘Orange’ has Tamil actor Prabhu as Ram Charan’s father, Satya Raj, Charan Raj, Sarath Kumar, Jackie Shroff, Manoj Bajpai and others too made their presence in Tollywood.

The importation rule in Tollywood is now being applied to the directors. Bommarillu Bhaskar, Karunakaran, S.J Surya, Gowtham Menon has established themselves in Tollywood. Director Shankar has been roped in for Mahesh’s ‘3-Rascals’. Vishnu Vardhan, the new director for Pawan Kalyan’s film and Dharani, director of Merupu are in search of their places in Tollywood. As per the sources, the Kollywood directors are said to be offered 1-3 crores as remuneration.

There are other technicians such as stunt masters like Peter Hynes, cinematographers like Andrews roped in for Darling, Yash Batt who worked for Khaleja, Binod Pradan who worked for Komaram Puli being roped into the big projects of Tollwood

Talent needs to be encouraged where ever it is. It is appreciable that other industries seeing a rapid growth. Heroines hailing from sandalwood are being encouraged all over. Kollywood has grown globally with highly talented stars and technicians like Kamal Hassan, Rajinikanth, Aishwarya Rai, A.R Rahman, Gautham Menon, Rasul Pookutty etc. It is not a surprise that Rajini’s Robo’ is the biggest grosser of this year in Tollywood. Due to the fame of Kollywood actors, the movies are being dubbed and the actors displaying their interest to act in a straight Telugu film. Vivek Oberoi and Suriya acted in Rakta Charitra. 3 Rascals have Tamil actor Jeeva and of course director, Shankar. Likewise, Tollywood also needs our own people to raise our standards.

It is a positive sign that some of our industry people like Ram Gopal Varma established himself in Bollywood, Daggubati Rana making his debut in Bollywood. Allu Aravind’s ‘Geeta Arts’ produced films in Bollywood. Some of the people in the industry like Kota Srinivasa Rao always mentions on stage or in his interviews to encourage Telugu talent, Sekhar Kammula is in search of Telugu people for his new film, ‘Life is Beautiful’. However, Telugu film industry seems to have less growth in regard to encouragement of new comers comparatively to other industries. The film-makers need to encourage the Telugu people’s talent too.

Firstly, it was heroines, later on villains, now the Telugu film Industry has become an open stage for all the other technicians, music directors, directors, and actors who hardly knows Telugu. If this continues, we will be restricted to watch the talent of our people only in CD’s and DVD’s.

From the past few years there are very few faces introduced to the Telugu cinema who are hailing from our region. Are the new ones not talented enough to make it big or is it just the Bollywood or Kollywood experienced people being chosen by film makers or is it the audiences not accepting the new talent are the questions for millions