`SAAHO’ AND `SYERAA’ TWO
TELUGU MOVIES WHICH CAN CHANGE FACE OF TELUGU/INDIAN CINEMA
The next fourty days are going to be crucial
for Telugu and also Indian film
industry with two mega bucks Telugu movies slated to release.
The first one is the much awaited Prabhas
starrer `Saaho’ which has a whopping Rs. 300 crores budget and going to
be the costliest Indian movie till date, leaving the costliest Hindi movie Thugs of Hindustan at Rs. 180 crores way behind.
While top Telugu stars like Mahesh Babu, Jr. NTR, Allu Arjun are still
waiting for an appropriate time and movie to make Bollywood entry and Ram
Charan cooled off after disaster of Zanjeer, it is an unlikely candidate Prabhas who ranks below all these has
become a huge star on All India basis thanks to the stupendous success of
Bahubali I and II. To encash his huge
popularity Prabhas has launched this ambitious movie. Whereas Bahubali was made like a period
movie, Saaho is a modern time action movie, larger than life sets and action
sequences being common in both the movies.
Apart from popularity of Prabhas and special effects and action there is
hardly anything to talk about star cast.
For the last two decades Telugu movies have relentlessly resurrecting the
careers of long forgotten Hindi villains who are not in reckoning right from
Sharad Saxena, Mukesh Rishi, Shinde to Ashish Vidharthi. The movie casts many such actors like Mukesh
Manjrekar, Chunky Pandey (the comedian), Niel Nitin Mukesh. Banking too much on VFX and action scenes is a risky
proposition but these daredevil producers have developed appetite for such
risks. Considering its huge budget to make it a safe
bet it is simultaneously made in Telugu, Hindi and also dubbed into Tamil and
Malayalam and slatted to released in 5000 plus screens all over India on 30th
August, 2019. The release was preceded by an unprecedented publicity blitz. Depending on the success
in Indian markets all plans are in place to dub and release the movie in China,
Hong Kong and Japan.
The second movie is the ever bankable Telugu
Mega Star Chiranjeevi starrer `Syeraa – Narasimha
Telugu and Tamil film industries are back bone
of Indian film industries and always gave run for money to Hindi film industry,
despite having very limited markets. Content
wise Malayalam and Bengali film industries too are very strong but other
language movies are left far behind. Telugu
film industry can be divided into two phases the pre Bahubali era and post
Bahubali era. A decade back more than
90% of Telugu movies are made with a budge of below Rs. 5 crores and the remaining 10% movie with top stars are
made with the budget of around Rs. 25 crores and they used to have a market of
about Rs. 50 to 75 crores if it is blockbuster. Around that time producers Shobu and Prasad roped
in highly talented Raja Mauli and liberally threw open their coffers and pumped
in Rs. 250 crores to make a master piece called Bahubali. With no Telugu film crossing a 100 crore
mark till that time and Telugu movies not having much market beyond the two
Telugu speaking states, it was considered a foolish and unrealistically overambitious
venture. After release, the movie not only re-written collection
records all over India but all over the world and made a whopping Rs. 1800
crores . It was for the first time world press has
covered the release of a Telugu movie. The
Hindi film industry has not only taken note but openly acknowledged the talent,
potential and supremacy of Telugu and Tamil film industry, led by Karan Johar. Hindi
producers lined up up for joint venture with Telugu producers or purchase
rights for release of Hindi version of Telugu movies.
In 1960s and 1970s the hugely talented and popular NT Rama
Rao, who mastered in every genre from Mythological, Folklore, social, to action
movies and had the Telugu film industry at his feet was reported to be very discontented
due to only one factor that such highly talented actors like him, ANR, Shivaji
Ganeshan do not get any recognition outside their respective states and
completely ignored by Hindi film industry and not to speak of World
cinema. He was of the firm view that Telugu and other
south Indian actors, directors and technicians are capable to take the Indian cinema
and world cinema by storm. Though in
his life time till he chose to bid good bye to cinema to join politics he
remained an uncrowned king of Telugu film industry and treated as a demy God,
he was relatively unknown beyond south India.
Bahubali has set the bench mark
and if Saaho and Syaraa with combined budget of Rs 500 crores succeed it will
change the landscape of Teugu/Indian cinema.
Rajamouli has already announced that he has set his eyes for a movie
with Rs 1000 crores budget and ready to devote five years if some producers are
ready to back him up. The type of
technology they are using, the conceiving and execution of action scenes the
overall package and very aggressive marketing techniques used are no less than Hollywood. If
such movie succeed we can dictate terms and set up a parallel cinema to Hollywood in
world cinema and not crave for recognition at Oscars, which traditionally been
biased against Indian cinema. The way
south Indian movies have their own SIMA awards (on being ignored by the
organisers of IIFA awards), the Indian cinema can have its own Oscar.
Best wishes for the success of `Sahoo and Syeraa’
S. Prabhakar
25.8.19
