A dozen odd films out of 100 is a rather dismal figure. A shattering verdict indeed by the audience, who seem to have delivered the message to Tollywood's filmmakers this year – that they need to improve in many departments. Out of the 121 films released, only eleven were hits and the best money churners were actually small budget films with debutants!
Year of the debutants
2008 was truly the year of debutants and of small budget films. Radhakrishna's debut film Gamyam not only did good business but also won critical acclaim. Kotha Bangaru Lokam directed by another debutant Srikanth Addala also did roaring business. Produced by Dil Raju, this film had the young pair of Varun Sandesh and Shweta Prasad as the lead actors. Films like Gorintaku, Ready, Jalsa, Ullasanga Utsahanga, Souryam, Vinayakudu and Ashta Chemma did good business. Another star son Naga Chaitanya, was introduced amid much fanfare by ANR and Nagarjuna.
Stars sans the shine
On the flipside, big-budget films that were expected to do well were miserable failures. Kathanayakudu, Pandurangadu, Krishnarjuna, Bujjigadu, Kantri and Okka Magadu featuring big stars bit the dust. Balakrishna's Okka Magadu and Nagarjuna's Don did collect fantastic revenues initially, but could not really live up to audiences' expectations and buyers who paid fancy prices for the film suffered heavy losses.
When it comes to the big stars, only Venkatesh seems to be the saving grace with Chintakayala Ravi doing decent business. Ravi Teja had one hit Krishna and a flop Baladoor. His forthcoming project Neninthe directed by Puri has been released a couple of days ago and the much-hyped spoof on Tollywood is receiving poor response across the state. Vishnu's Krishnarjuna, with Nag in a guest role, was also a dud at the BO while Tamil director P Vasu followed it up with another damp squib Kathanayakudu which didn't work in spite of Rajanikanth. Mahesh Babu, one of the top stars of Telugu cinema, had no release this year.
Teja, who's shown good promise with his other films, also couldn't move much water at the BO with his Keka.
Surprise surprise
The surprise hit this year was Gorintaku, starring Rajasekhar and Meera Jasmine. The film was a remake of a Kannada film, and despite unfavourable reviews, it did well at the BO and is actually one of Rajasekhar's best efforts.
Among the directors, Srinu Vytla scored a hattrick with Ready, starring Ram and Genelia. On the other hand, another young director VV Vinayak, who was looking for a good hit, came out with flying colours with the blockbuster Krishna. Bommarillu Bhaskar continued his run of success with Parugu and Indraganti too had a hit with Ashta Chemma which featured mostly new faces. Karunakaran, who delivered a successful film Ullasanga Utsahanga is now on cloud nine as Ram Charan Tej announced that he is going to do a film with him next year.
Small films starring smaller heroes tasted big success this year. Bommana Brothers Chandana Sisters and Blade Babji with Allari Naresh and other comedians did good business.
Courtesy:TOI
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