The war for records and breaking the previous ones is back again. Tollywood has reached a point where the competition is not for ‘Quality’ but for Quantity.’ With release date of ‘Panjaa’ coming closer, the number of theatres it will get as compared to the previous hits in the recent times has become an issue.
The strategists try to discover some point or the other to score over and publicize it saying that this is the first ever this-and-that, only to be erased by some other venture in the very immediate future. Right from number screens to number of theatres to collections day-by-day, week-by-week, combinational details of lead pair, hero-director, hero-music director or anything that can be told about.
It all started with ‘Pokiri.’ There was a very ordinary storyline, some unconvincing relationships and sequences but narration was good, it had pace, songs were good and it became a hit as collections went exceedingly good at box office. Though film had violence like a cut open wound, it ran to full houses. That was for whatever reason, made the yard stick for a hit.
Soon arrived is ‘Magadheera.’ It has a storyline spanning centuries and has the required fights, songs and violence and surpassed the records of ‘Pokiri,’ so the industry claimed. Now this has become the highpoint of Tollywood, collection wise.
After that every picture is compared these two pictures and ‘Dookudu’ team said it has surpassed all records and created a new record. So what? The question is, if a picture has good openings, the picture is a hit. One need not bother about story, screenplay, artistic and technical contribution. ‘Sri Rama Rajyam’ did not have good openings, but the picture, people say is good. The conclusion according to latest trend is that Bapu directed movie is just an average to flop. Though promotional activities are keeping talk of the film alive, poorly it is not picking up at box office. Since it is Nandmuri Balakrishna film, people shy away to tell it openly that film is not doing well according to latest trends.
The success meet of film held recently, tried to boost image of producer Yalamanchi Sai Babu, who looked flabbergasted at event even as Balakrishna and others heaped praises on him. It is time for industry to shun the dichotomy and try to call the spade a spade. Producers have evolved a mechanism where money invested is back in some form or other, if not a fat profit. With the growing market, films can money in many ways and the trade secrets are mastered by all. Some level of sycophancy is allowed in all fields but it is time to analyze a picture in the way it has to be done and not by collections alone.