Move over stars from filmi families, Tollywood is riding high on new-age stars like Vijay Devarakonda, Siddhu Jonnalagadda, Naveen Polishetty and Vishwak Sen who are minting money at the box office with refreshing roles and themes. “These four talented guys are making waves in Tollywood and giving stars from film families a stiff fight since family stars carry a baggage while new age stars have no such qualms,” says Lagadapati Sridhar, who marks the rise of Vijay Devarakonda. “After ‘Arjun Reddy,’ Vijay became a sensation of sorts and ‘Liger’ fetched him pan-India craze too. He had big hits like ‘Geeta Govindam’ and he showcased his acting talent. However, he has not been among hits these days and he just needs a good script to bounce back,” he adds.
However, he reserves special praise for Siddhu Jonnalagadda and hails him as a new sensation.““Tillu Square’ is one of the biggest hits in the industry and Siddhu is making waves. His unique mannerisms, his stylish looks and flair for comedy has won him huge appreciation and fan following too. He is truly a multi-faceted man who can act, write and design the project too. He will go a long way,” he adds. With stars from Chirnajeevi, Akkineni and Daggupati families insisting on certain kinds of movies, leaving space for new-age stars to shine. “Family stars have lot of limitation in terms of themes and roles since they have to cater to a section of audience and stuff, while new generation stars have no such baggage’s and experimenting with new roles and shattering box office,” he points out,
He also praised Naveen Polishetty for his flair for comedy and Vishwak Sen for his intense action roles. “Viswak Sen deserves kudos for playing an Aghori in ‘Gaami’ alongwith his commercial roles. He is the man to watch out for, while Naveen Polishettyis quite selective about roles and chalking his own path without any hurry. These young guns are racing ahead with their choice of roles and abundant talent,” he informs.
However, he has a word of caution for a few actors, who are taking over projects and involving themselves completely and leaving directors in despair. “Few of these actors are multi-talented and are quite creative too. To keep up their standing they are curtailing the freedom of directors and involving themselves in more ways than one. In this aspect, they have to trust directors after agreeing to work in a film and then it would help these actors to reach greater heights. Just a thin line differs between interference and sharing inputs,” concludes Lagadapati Sridhar.
