With the legendary Amitabh Bachchan returning to Tollywood with much-hyped ‘Kalki 2898 AD’, producer Lagadapati Sridhar says, "I am glad that he is doing a Telugu film after a big gap and he looks stunning in trailers. Besides, his charisma is unmatched and he is an icon of Indian cinema.” He further adds, “I am his diehard fan from my college days and there are crores of Telugus like me who adored his style, baritone voice and swag in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana,” he adds. He claims that Amitabh Bachchan rocked Telugu box office in the 70s to 90 with blockbusters like ‘Sholay, ‘Amar Akbar Antony’ and ‘Don’ and 'Naseeb'. “Actually, his gangster movie ‘Don’ ran for over one year in Tarakarama theatre in Hyderabad which proved his crowd pulling prowess, while ‘Sholay’ had silver jubilee run in 5 to 6 centres in united Andhra Pradesh and his ‘Coolie’ was also a money spinner,” he points out.
He claims that Hyderabadis loved his movie along with audiences in Vijayawada and Vizag and his popularity has expanded in two Telugu states over the years. “Even his other films like ‘Shehenshah’ triggered a lot of buzz and drew openings in united Andhra Pradesh but later his market in Telugu land fizzled out,” he adds.
After doing mostly Bollywood movies, he did a Telugu film ‘Sye Raa Narasimhareddy’ with megastar Chiranjeevi but it failed to set the box office on fire. “It was a poorly-etched role for the stature and immense talent of Amitabh and it disappointed his Telugu fans too,” he informs. However, he feels that Amitabh would prove his mettle once again as Aswadhama in much-talked about ‘Kalki’. “Trailers showcase traces of his acting brilliance and hope he has an author-backed role to showcase his acting genius. At 80-odd years, he may not be drawing openings in Telugu states, but once audiences are in theatres, he is bound to grip the audience with his riveting performance,” he concludes.
