What is the one curse that has been holding a lot of medium-range heroes back? This is an important question to ask, given that there are about a dozen of them in Hyderabad. Tollywood is blessed with a multitude of heroes with a decent acting range. Those considered medium-range are talented but they are failed by, sorry for being rude, useless filmmakers.
If you think about it, Nani is the only medium-range star hero to strike gold on repeat. Vijay Deverakonda would have been a bigger star had it not been for the failure of the filmmakers he blindly trusts.
Tollywood is the graveyard of filmmakers who endure. Most of the so-called promising filmmaking talents can make just one or two good films. Beyond that, they are of no use.
Look at Sudheer Varma, Shiva Nirvana, Karuna Kumar, G Ashok, Srinivas Avasarala, Srikanth Addala, Vi Anand, Bommarillu Baskhar, Dasaradh, Kranthi Kumar, Venu Udugula, Jeevan Reddy, Ravikanth Perepu, Venkatesh Maha, and many more. The list of filmmakers who struggle to write two good stories in a five-year period is extremely difficult in this industry. Two stories. Five years. Is it too much to expect the bare minimum from men who have staked their lives to be in the most challenging yet most rewarding work environment?
In the post-pandemic era, the few promising filmmakers seem to be chasing God-knows-what. Sandeep Raj's 'Colour Photo' was released in 2020. This is 2024 and he is yet to have a second release. Whatever is the director of 'Middle Class Melodies' doing? Buchi Babu Sana of 'Uppena' fame is chasing the pan-Indian dream.
Is it any wonder that we have one too many actors struggling to repeat their successes? From Varun Tej to Naga Shaurya, from Sree Vishnu to Nikhil Siddhartha, from Naga Chaitanya to Aadi Saikumar, they either register one memorable success every three to four years or nothing at all. The blame lies entirely on our filmmakers and filmmakers alone. Tollywood directors who debuted after 2010, with a very few honourable exceptions, don't know how to picturize a good song, forget a bad one. They don't know what sense of humour is like. They fail at moments worthy of mass appeal. They are comprehensively dull.
Only three young filmmakers have redeemed themselves in recent times: Prasanth Varma, Venky Atluri and Vivek Athreya. The rest are actually harming the film industry.
