If you hire a cab anywhere in Telangana, the driver is sure to be playing a Telugu film song. If you happen to know the song, you’ll find yourself humming the same tune with him. Even if you don’t know it, you will eventually start tapping your feet to the catchy beat.
Tollywood, as the Telugu film industry is fondly known as, is a conversation starter. There isn’t a Telugu-speaking person who won’t add his two cents to any conversation about the industry. Tollywood is the ultimate pop culture reference in the state and cuts across all economic and social backgrounds. Tollywood is more about the euphoria that surrounds it than the films it produces. The average occupancy level in a cinema hall is higher than what it is in the rest of the country and watching the same film repeatedly is like a ritual to many. The entertainment tax that the state levies on Telugu cinema tickets is as low as 15 per cent as against the 47 per cent it goes up to in many other parts of the country. For these reasons, several Telugu films, although linguistically catering to only two states (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana), quickly collect 100 crores at the box office, the number which the Indian Film Industry set as benchmark for a super-hit film. Single screen cinemas are still predominant here and true movie lovers pick them over the multiplexes. Telugu cinema is a religion that everyone has access to and willingly follows. The theatres are temples and the heroes are matinee gods.
Giant cutouts of heroes adorn the walls of cinema halls and people pray to these cut outs and decorate them with garlands when films release. Thousands compete to see their favourite actor’s first appearance in a new film on the large screen, amidst frenzied dancing, whistling, hooting and throwing confetti. Heroes here have become such idols because they are projected to be invincible. The stories of the characters they portray – a common man achieving his and society’s dreams by performing impossible feats – are supposed to be inspirational. A Tollywood film never preaches, it never ends in a tragedy and provides for a perfect getaway from mundane life, with its high decibel entertainment value. Although Telugu cinema has never had any defining movements such as those experienced by parallel cinema or film noir, its present form is quite different from what it was earlier.
The first Telugu silent film, Bhishma Pratigna was produced in 1921 by filmmaker Raghupati Venkaiah Naidu, who is cited as the father of Telugu cinema. In the year 1933, the East India Film Company produced its first film, Savitri, in Telugu. The films that followed mostly adapted screenplays from theatre plays. For the next couple of decades, Tollywood’s USP remained its mythological and fantasy films. Patala Bhairavi (1951) was the first south Indian film that premiered at the first India International Film Festival, held in Mumbai in 1952. Umpteen mythological films hit the screens during this period – Mayabazaar (1957), Nartanasala (1963), Krishna Tulabaram (1966), Sri Krishna Pandaveeyam (1966) – all of which starred Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (NTR) as Lord Krishna and elevated him to a god-like status. Mayabazaar, directed by KV Reddy, holds a special place in Telugu cinema for its casting, iconic scenes and comedy. It starred all the big names of Tollywood in that era, from NTR and Akkineni Nageswara Rao to Savitri and SV Ranga Rao. The film was the first Telugu film to be digitally re-mastered and colourised. A CNN-IBN poll listed Mayabazaar as the greatest Indian film of all time, in May 2013.
Simultaneously, Akkineni Nageswara Rao (ANR) emerged as the ultimate family man as most of his popular films were family-centric dramas. Devadasu (1953), starring Nageswara Rao and Savitri and directed by Vedantam Raghavaiah is Telugu cinema’s adaptation of famous Bengali novel, Devdas that was written by Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay. ANR’s acting was unanimously appreciated and the film became an instant hit and enjoys a cult classic status in Tollywood. Music composer Ghantasala gained popularity during this period with his melodious numbers that fit perfectly with family dramas. Adhurthi Subba Rao is regarded as the intellectual fountainhead of Indian drama films. He directed several popular movies such as Manchi Manasulu (1962), Mooga Manasulu (1964) Doctor Chakravarty (1964) and Tene Manasulu (1965). Another personality who gained prominence in this period was actor and director LV Prasad. Besides directing several films in Telugu, he also acted in India’s first talkie picture Alam Ara (1931).
Savitri carved a niche for herself in a male-dominated industry. She acted in numerous films alongside NTR and ANR and slipped into the shoes of any character effortlessly – undisputedly becoming the greatest female actor in Telugu cinema. Decades later, her position has still not been challenged.
The period that followed proved to be a true blessing to Tollywood. The industry went through some major technical upheavals and, one man, Krishna Ghattamaneni made it all possible. He was an actor, director, writer, editor and producer of several films. He is credited with producing several technological firsts in Telugu cinema – the first Eastman colour film Eenadu (1982), the first Cinemascope film Alluri Seetharama Raju (1974), first 70mm film Simhasanam (1986), the first DTS film Telugu Veera Levara (1988) – besides introducing cowboy and James Bond style films to the Telugu film industry. The films during his period dealt with subjects such as people’s revolution and patriotism and reflected contemporary societal conflicts. As a result, Krishna was loved by the masses. They added the tag of ‘Superstar’ in front of his name.
The 1980s wasn’t a particularly exciting period – the films were vulgar and crass while the actors were stiff and uninspired – and the audiences craved for change. Chiranjeevi was that change with his impeccable dance moves and powerful acting. Other heroes who became popular after Chiranjeevi were Nandamuri Balakrishna, Akkineni Nagarjuna and Daggubati Venkatesh. Nagarjuna was tagged as the romantic hero because his most popular films were romantic comedies; Venkatesh became famous with his comedy films while Balakrishna was known for his action films.
One towering personality, Daggubati Ramanaidu produced many films around this period and holds a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for most number of films produced by an individual – 150 films in more than 13 languages.
Tollywood’s reigning superstar Mahesh Babu Ghattamaneni is credited with teaching the industry the magic of numbers and thus ascertaining the commercial capacity of Telugu cinema’s box office in India and abroad. He opened up the market for Telugu cinema in the USA, where a major chunk of its box office earnings is collected. Numerous films of his, such as Okkadu (2003), Pokiri (2006) (see box below), Dookudu (2011) and Srimanthudu (2015) proved to be industry hits, breaking all previous records with their massive collections. Mahesh Babu is one hero who is adored by the masses for his subtle yet powerful acting and charming good looks.
Director SS Rajamouli enjoys a special position in the Telugu Film Industry. There is not an actor who doesn’t want to work with him; in a hero-dominated industry, Rajamouli dictates terms and his films are watched for him and not for the actors. Rajamouli has directed close to 12 films, all successful, with the most famous ones being Magadheera (2009), Eega/ Makhi (2012) and Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) (see box on p53), which have taken Telugu cinema onto a pan-India platform. Nearly 85 years after its inception, Rajamouli’s films have thrown Telugu cinema on to an international platform much to the envy of various other Indian film industries.
Baahubali: Setting Standards High
Believed to be India’s largest film in terms of its scale and budget, Baahubali: The Beginning, directed by SS Rajamouli, is a bilingual film that released in July 2015. Starring Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Ramya Krishna, Sathyaraj, Anushka Shetty, Nasser and Tamannah in leading roles, the film was widely publicized before it was dubbed into Hindi and Malayalam from Telugu and Tamil and simultaneously released in all four languages on 4,000 screens worldwide.
This epic tells the story of the ancient kingdom of Mahishmati and its two princes Baahubali and Bhallala Deva, who are competing for the throne. The graphics and cinematography are the highlights of the film, making it an out and out visual delight from start to finish. Upon release, the Indian audience was awed by the grandeur of the film, which collected 600 crores at the worldwide box office, 480 crores more than its budget of 120 crores, becoming the highest grossing Indian film of all time. The epic film’s second installment, Baahubali: The Conclusion is set to release in 2016.
Pokiri: The Guide to Commercial Cinema
Pokiri, which released on 28 April, 2006, was a massive phenomenon in Tollywood. Numerous films that released after Pokiri, albeit good, didn’t manage to perform well at the box office. Every Telugu film lover’s favourite pastime during the summer of 2006 was to watch Pokiri over and over again.
Starring Mahesh Babu and Ileana D’Cruze and directed by Puri Jagannadh, the film’s prime asset is its flawless screenplay. Adding to it are the hero’s mannerisms, powerful dialogues and jaw-dropping climax scenes. The film catapulted Mahesh Babu to super stardom and collected vast amounts of money. Pokiri set the benchmark for commercial Telugu cinema as it is today, with many directors and scriptwriters still using it as a guidebook to ultimate box office success. Technically and financially, Pokiri was a game changer. The film was later remade into Tamil as Pokkri (2007), into Kannada as Porki (2010) and into Hindi as Wanted (2009).