When Telugu cinema started increasing its commercial stamina since NTR's Adavi Ramudu to Chiranjeevi's Indra, one can see the comedy content in the films and how all sections of people enjoyed those scenes.
Makers used to create comedy tracks specially for stars like Raja Babu, Allu Ramalingaiah, Brahmanandam, Babu Mohan, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Ali, Dharmavarapu Subramaniam, AVS etc.
Though at times those comedy tracks deviated from the main story, makers ensured that it does not affect the final result but made sure that people enjoyed them heartily.
That was the reason why comedians turned stars in a short time. But now such situation is not seen. Almost all the films have a comedy track in which comedians are seen as friends of heroes or heroines. Makers are not trying to come out of it and entertain people creating a separate comedy track. They are instead trying to create comedy with the family members of the heroines. This could be seen in films like Vinaya Vidheya Rama.
The present five to six comedians got attracted to lead roles and made clear that they will not do comedian roles which resulted in the current situation. Even when they turned heroes, they are not doing hilarious roles but are irritating with their heroism.
If this continues, future generation may tell stories like 'there used to be comedy and comedians in the olden days of Tollywood'. To avoid this, directors should at least try drawing inspiration from Jandhyala, EVV Satyanarayana and others.