Devotional Touch is New Crowd Puller in Tollywood
Even seasoned director Boyapati Srinu is dishing out Akhanda 2 after making action films like Simha and Legend
With numero uno director S S Rajamouli—who made commercial blockbusters like Baahubali and RRR—joining the race to deliver a genre-bending film Varanasi, which is loaded with devotional elements, devotional cinema seems to be the new flavour in Tollywood. “I think he has chosen this devotional idea to expand the market of Telugu cinema across the globe. If Rajamouli is gaining popularity worldwide, it also means that he is raising the bar for Telugu cinema and our writers are getting better at designing such concepts,” says producer-director M S Raju, who himself made devotional films like Devi and Deviputrudu.
Even seasoned director Boyapati Srinu is dishing out Akhanda 2 after making action films like Simha and Legend. “Probably, directors are bored of making formulaic movies with staple hero introductions, four songs, fights and some melodrama, which have turned predictable and are losing sheen at the box office. So popular directors are trying to add god-centric moments to offer something different,” he explains.
He also praises young directors like Chandoo Mondeti, Prashanth Varma and Karthik Ghattamaneni for tasting success with devotional-centric films such as Karthikeya 2, HanuMan and Mirai. “Even audiences across India are probably looking at Tollywood for supernatural and god-based movies, and young directors are cashing in on it,” he says, adding, “Nag Ashwin based his whole film Kalki 2898 AD on Lord Krishna and later mythological characters like Ashwatthama and Karna, turning it into a sci-fi thriller revolving around saving Kalki, the 10th avatar of Lord Vishnu. These genre-bending movies are rocking the box office,” he points out.
He notes that Telugu cinema earlier witnessed seasons of love stories, action films and comic-capers, and attributes this new trend to a similar cycle. “Definitely, it is the season of socio-fantasy in Telugu cinema, and filmmakers are trying to cash in on the craze at this moment. If tomorrow a love story or an action film rocks the box office, directors and producers will rush to make more of those. It is a temporary phenomenon and is bound to reach its logical end,” he adds.
Talking about superstars like Prabhas and Mahesh Babu donning godly roles—Rudra in Kannappa and Lord Ram in Varanasi—director Ashok Teja says, “Superstars are getting larger-than-life roles and trying to expand their fan base by essaying almighty characters. Even Jr NTR and Pawan Kalyan have done such roles. Big stars who have attained a massive screen image fit into divine roles, since they demand a certain stature and aura to pull them off.”
Ashok Teja, who cast Tamannaah as the first female Aghora in Odela 2, adds, “Telugu cinema has been expanding over the years, and worldwide audiences want to witness magical moments on the big screen. They are declining to watch regular commercial movies. Hence, supernatural and socio-fantasy films mixing god and evil forces are bringing crowds to theatres across the world,” he concludes.