Hyderabad: With big stars, famous directors and big budget films being hits, there is no guarantee that the rest of the films in Tollywood will also be a hit. It we can see after the tremendous success of ‘Pushpa’ that hit Tollywood that Tollywood has also tasted failures due to weak scripts of many films.
Many awaited films hit the screens in the last four months, but S.S. Barring Rajamouli’s ‘RRR’, others starring Jr NTR and Ram Charan either bombed at the box-office or recorded average success.
Arguably the biggest name in Tollywood, Chiranjeevi could not guarantee a great opening for ‘Acharya’.
The film directed by Koratala Siva featured megastar Chiranjeevi and his son Ram Charan in a cameo role in the lead roles. The film released on 29 April at the box office but due to negative reviews, there was a huge drop in the collection of the film in the first 4 days.
It disappointed fans in Telugu states as well. In Andhra Pradesh it increased ticket prices in the first week in accordance with the state government’s policy for big budget films. However, the performance of ‘Acharya’ is so poor that trade analysts believe that it may end business within this week.
Despite the presence of the father-son duo and their fans in large numbers in the theaters on the first weekend and the hype around the film, it failed to live up to the expectations. ‘Acharya’ made a grand budget of Rs 140 crore worldwide in its first weekend and earned Rs 63.5 crore.
Tollywood watchers say that Acharya could turn out to be one of the biggest flops of 2022.
A clichéd storyline and a dated narrative without effective sentiments in it, came as a huge disappointment to fans of Chiranjeevi, who had high hopes from this first collaboration between megastar and successful director Koratala Siva.
It was the second famous father-son duo to flop at the box-office. Earlier, this year ‘Bangaaraju’ starring Nagarjuna and his son Naga Chaitanya also failed to do much. While their fans were excited to see them together on screen, the film could not win the hearts of its fans due to the bad script. Kalyan Krishna made it as a sequel to ‘Sogde Chinni Nayana’ (2016), in which Nagarjuna played a double role, and was a commercial success.
Despite the promotions of the father-son duo, ‘Bangaaraju’ could only earn Rs 60 crore worldwide.
Another big failure this year is ‘Radhe Shyam’ starring Bahubali fame Prabhas in the lead role. Released in many languages, this romantic drama film could not live up to the expectations of the fans.
According to the information, this much-awaited film produced with a budget of Rs 350 crore has been able to earn a total of Rs 144 crore from all languages across the world.
Starring Prabhas in the role of the world famous palmist, ‘Radhe Shyam’ in Telugu, Hindi and Tamil hit the screens on March 11. Despite the thrilling scenes, the grand outdoors, the romance and good music, the story of the film proved to be a cliché.
‘Bhimla Nayak’ starring Pawan Kalyan and ‘Baahubali’ fame Daggubati Rana was another much-awaited film to hit the screens in February.
It was the Telugu remake of Malayalam-language action thriller ‘Ayyappanum Koshiyum’ (2020). The story of ‘Ayyappanam Koshiyum’ was about an ego clash between two men, while ‘Bhimla Nayak’ was about Pawan Kalyan. Rana’s role was taken to allow Power Star, as Chiranjeevi’s brother is popularly known in film circles.
Bhimla Nayak did a worldwide business of Rs 158.5 crores.
The romantic comedy ‘DJ Tillu’ starring young actors Sidhu Jonnalgadda and Neha Shetty in lead roles also did average business.
Leading actor Ravi Teja starrer ‘Khiladi’ was a flop. Theatrically released on 11 February with Hindi dubbed version. The film, written and directed by Ramesh Varma, went on to gross Rs 23.5 crore worldwide, though the film’s budget was estimated to be Rs 40 crore.
Film analyst Prabhu said that “After the stupendous success of ‘Pushpa’, the main reason why many Telugu films have not bombed at the box office is due to the worn out scripts of the films. The power of the script makes a film successful. If any. If the film comes with a bad script and an uninteresting script, the film automatically flops. No matter how big the star is and how good the director is, it all depends on the strength of the script. If the script is bad, then No one can save the film.”
He believes that a film can be successful only when the script compels the audience to sit in theaters without distracting them.
He said film critics, however, say that the theme a filmmaker chooses is not the whole story. Whichever line you take, there should be some interesting scenes. 10-15 interesting scenes make a film successful. The main reason for the failure is the lack of strength in the scenes. There is no other reason why the standards of filmmaking are so high as to be amazing.
Experts say that the actors cannot be blamed for the failure of a film as all the stars are veteran actors. It all depends on the script an artist gets and the character they play.
He said, “We cannot blame the actors. Actors are like water which takes the shape of a vessel. It all depends on the ability of the director, how he molds the character and the way he characterizes the character. generates interest in.”
According to Prabhu, ‘Pushpa’ also didn’t have a great script, but the way Allu Arjun brought strength, a tough and tough wild character and his demeanor helped the film succeed. He said, “The film has exposed and glorified the character of a smuggler. It shows that the film did well, even if the bad character was portrayed in a deep and interesting manner.”
