Why Tollywood films are increasingly focussing on father-son relationship
A still from Govindudu Andari Vaadele
Hyderabad: In recent years, Tollywood has been milking the father-son relationship to its last drop and it has mostly worked. The trend started with Mahesh Babu’s Dookudu and “father-son” duo, Prakash Raj and Mahesh, gave the audience their money’s worth. That was followed by Prabhas’ Mirchi, Ram Charan’s Govindudu Andari Vaa-dele and S/o Satyamurthy, starring Allu Arjun.
“The days of the ‘mother’ and ‘sister’ sentiments are over, it’s the trend of ‘father-son’ and ‘brothers’ now. This will continue for a few more years before it changes,” says Kona Venkat, writer of Dookudu.
Many upcoming films too are banking on the father-son sentiment. Jagapathi Babu is playing Mahesh Babu’s father in the upcoming film Srimanthudu, which is being directed by Koratala Shiva. Interestingly, Shiva had debuted with Mirchi, which had also highlighted the father-son relationship.
In 2010, director Chandra Siddharth had portrayed father-son emotions in Andari Bandhuvaya with Sharvanand as the lead actor. While it was critically acclaimed, the film did not do well commercially. “If one film becomes a hit, then the others follow the same route. That’s the usual trend in Tollywood. Dookudu was a big hit at that time and many came up with subjects that revolved around father and son relationship. Moreover, the present generation of kids are more attached to their fathers than their mothers,” says Chandra Siddharth.
S/o Satyamurthy director Trivikram Srinivas says that his film is a tribute to fathers. “We put mothers on top and she is the first guru for any child. But the father also plays an important role,” says the filmmaker.
Kalyan Ram’s Pataas also has the same theme. Sai Kumar plays the father and the story is about Sai Kumar and Kalyan Ram. In Ram Charan’s Govindudu Andari Vaadele, director Krishna Vamsi delved into family bonding and emotions in the backdrop of a son-father-grandfather relationship. Even Ravi Teja’s Balupu had this sentiment. “Earlier too there were films on this sentiment. The difference between then and now is at that time the same actor would play the role of the father and the son. Now, the makers want another popular actor to play the father to give a boost to the film,” says filmmaker B. Jaya.
She adds that apart from Prakash Raj, many act-ors like Jagapathi Babu, Rajendra Prasad and Rao Ramesh have been able to pull off fathers’ roles successfully. “Writers are coming up with subjects keeping in mind the actors who are available for the fathers’ characters.,” she adds.
Ravi Teja’s upcoming film Kick 2, directed by Surender Reddy, carries the same sentiment. But here, Ravi will be playing both father and son. The upcoming film of Jr NTR and director Sukumar also has the same theme. The makers are still searching for a suitable actor to play Jr NTR’s father and it is being rumoured that the actor’s real father, Harikrishna, may play this character in this film.
( Source : dc )
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