Some things are unique to the Tollywood media and the Telugu film industry. Anything goes here. Star film journalists don't mind revealing key plot twists much before the release of movies. Dialogues and the nature of staging in big-ticket teasers and trailers are revealed a couple of days before for engagement farming. Titles of movies are revealed weeks ahead, catching the production houses unawares. There exists a vast market for such "exclusives".
Lately, even Censor reports haven't been spared. In the name of reporting about the Censor talk, "inside reports" put out spoilers. Filmmaker Pavan Sadineni wonders if it is uncontrolled excitement on the part of a section of the media, or the urge to outcompete rivals. "There were days we watched a poster, went to the film, then came trailers, and later reviews. Now even censor reports have reviews! Wish we saved something for the audience to experience firsthand in theatres. Social media connects us, but I hope it holds back excitement to let audiences truly enjoy the magic," he adds.
Pavan Sadineni's criticism comes in the wake of spoilers related to 'Pushpa 2' doing the rounds on social media, thanks to a few overenthusiastic media handles. Such exclusive reports end up heightening the expectations to unreal levels and eventually leading to audience disappointment. If you are told that a particular episode in a particular film will be rousing non-stop for twenty-five minutes, you will rev up your expectations. And expectations, nine out of ten times, are never met by films.
The funniest thing about such media houses is that, after shamelessly revealing spoilers with glee, they occasionally proceed to say in their movie reviews that the film's plot is predictable. It is "predictable" because you were privileged enough to know the plot beforehand. For millions, the film would be unpredictable and enjoyable.
