Many believed that Telugu cinema discovered a new age storyteller in the form of Venky Atluri after Tholi Prema, as someone who could give a refreshing spin to modern-day love stories. However, the young director hasn’t made a conscious effort to reinvent himself after his first film. His second and third films, Mr Majnu and Rang De have continued to reflect a similar line of thought as his debut.
Rang De has proved lucky for the director despite that reason. The freshness in the pairing of Nithiin and Keerthy Suresh, a peppy soundtrack from Devi Sri Prasad and PC Sreeram’s technical brilliance have helped the audiences overlook the follies in the film and earn a decent opening. Rom-coms and family entertainers have always been a safe bet in Telugu cinema, but the director should be careful to not take this success for granted.
Instead of the industry dictating terms to him, Venky should ideally experiment with different stories across many genres while occasionally returning to his favourite zone, i.e. rom-com, once in a while. The film industry is quite quick to stereotype people and the director may get stuck in a shell if he isn’t careful enough.