The progress card of the Telugu movies released in this one month of the new year is a clear verdict by the audience to the Telugu film industry -- try something interesting and new or perish. The year 2011 started on a rather auspicious note for the industry, which has only seen handful of hits last year, as four of the films released in January went on to not only become successful but also could manage to create a buzz among the public. What is more surprising is the fact that three of these films, Ala Modhalayindhi, Golkonda High School and Anaganaga Oka Dheerudu, which are non-conventional in their own ways have been accepted with open arms by the public.
While, Ala Modhalaindi, a urban love story laced with humour, is being talked about for its fresh treatment another movie Golkonda High school which has a sports centric story, is a hit for its inspirational narration.
Anaganaga Oka Dheerudu, though not as successful as the other two movies, managed to captivate everyone with their stunning graphics which is hardly seen in Telugu films. “Audience now clearly want some thing new. They are not ready to watch the same routine commercial movies that they were fed with all these years” opines Golkonda High School director Indraganti Mohana Krishna. The director confides that it was the absolute novelty of his film which worked. “My film has nothing to offer that a mainstream film has. It is very unconventional for the telugu audience as it revolves around sports, which was hardly attempted.
However that turned out to be the USP of my movie.” He supports the fact that Telugu audience are opening up to watching experimental movies though slowly, when compared to their Tamil counterparts.
“The Tamil audience have been trained to watch different cinema from the beginning. Hence, they accept fresh and new movies. But since the Telugu audience have always been shown the same run-ofthe- mill stuff, hence, it took time for them to lap up different movies.” Elated with the success of her movie, Ala Modhalaindhi director Nandini Reddy is more surprised than ever. “The response among the public for the movie has surprised me. Even the non-target group is watching it in a big way,” she exclaims, adding, “This is a niche movie with clean entertainment.
The movie also broke the myth of particular kind of movies confined to a target audience. A good movie is accepted by all.” T Prasanna kumar, general secretary, AP Film Producers Council, pointed out that mindset of people are changing when it comes to films. “The audience of today can be categorised under intellectuals. They are able to decide which movie is worth watching and which can be ignored.
They are in no mood to watch the monotonous content even if it has big stars.” he said. According to him, the recent hits Ala Modhalaindhi and Golkonda High School is an answer for all those who thought that small budget and different cinema do not work in Telugu.