There was a time in Tollywood between 2012 and 2015 and again for few years before 2009, when film-makers wondered if Telugu film industry is here to stay because of escalating costs of shooting on one side and the pathetic recovery rate of Telugu films. In 2012, Tollywood overtook even Bollywood and Kollywood to make the highest number of films in one year. But in 2015, it exceeded everybody’s expectations by making a prolific number of films. If you count the number of dubbed films (into Telugu) and this includes the films like “Advocate Anuradha Varma” (Jazbaah) and “Baji Rao Mastani“, Tollywood has finished the year with a record number of films just ten films short of touching 200 with the last week’s releases like “Soukhyam“, “Bhale Manchi Roju”, “Jata Kalise” and “Mama Manchu Alludu Kanchu”. That’s a staggering output for an industry which gave India’s biggest ever blockbuster in 2015 – “Bahubali“.
Between “Bahubali” and “Srimanthudu”, Tollywood touched a total gross of Rs.744 crores (Rs.144 crores for “Srimanthudu” as per Forbes India estimate). With a string of other hits during the year like “Gopala Gopala”, “S/o Satyamurthy”, “Cinema Choopisthaa Maama”, “Bhale Bhale Magadivoi”, “Ganga”, “Pandaga Chesko”, “Kanche”, “Raju Gari Gadi”, “Rudramadevi”, “Mayuri”, “Bengal Tiger”, the hit ratio really didn’t improve but the collections got back-ended because of the force that picked with “Bahubali”. If you count the collections for some of these top grossers, the trade would have touched Rs.950-1000 crores which is a milestone for one of the most talented and hardest-working film industry in the country which commissions the best heroines and technicians in India.
What makes 2015 different from any of the years before for Tollywood is that the industry coordinated with dramatic camaraderie in bunching the movies for releases in such a manner that capital is unfreeze and there is a rhythm behind the release itself that breaks monotony. Here is what sets the year different and makes it a golden year for Tollywood:
The legend of Bahubali. The campaign for India’s most-loved blockbuster started almost 15-18 months before the teaser date. And created a blitzkreig that engulfed the whole country into watching it. The cult status attained for the film itself has entered case-study analysis at the world’s B-schools.
The cascading effect for Srimanthudu. The film promoted its content differently than Bahubali but gave a two week break for the Bahubali run to soak collections. There was no looking back afterwards as “Srimanthudu” also gained good talk and created history with a good content.
The magic of non-templated films like Gopala Gopala and Temper. The first half of the year had only three major hits – “Gopala Gopala”, “Temper” and “S/o Satyamurthy” but it ensured to set up the tempo for “Bahubali” later on with hunger for different content piling up. Usually, Tollywood’s trend of releases is heavily front-ended like RBI’s busy season credit policy as many producers run out of box-office slots to release films in the second half when interest drops. This year, the pace of production has been so staggering that a lackadaisical first half and the impending release of Bahubali hasn’t stopped the speedier release of many films in the second half making the second half loaded with higher releases than the first half. Part of the reason this time is the Bahubali effect on one side and the avalanche of dubbed Tamil films which hit the screens in the first half especially from the likes of Vikram, Rajanikanth and Kamal Hassan. Not surprisingly, content drove success better than innovative marketing in the whole year of 2015. “Raghuvaran BTech” became the only hit movie for dubbed films this year. (Oke Bangaram was an average film despite winning hearts). When it comes to punishing the films for content, Telugu audiences were unanimous in their verdict. The debacles of films like “Shivam”, “Lion”, “Jil”, “Soukhyam”, “Kick-2” all proved that the Telugu fan cares nothing for Telugu films if the content is boring and repetitive.
Good coordination between the Industry across the Supply Chain. Whether it is pushing the decision to prepone “Kanche” after “Brucelee”‘s debacle, or accelerating “Rudramadevi” in more screens and promoting “Bhale Bhale Magadivoi” as a new-age comedy or removing “Akhil” and “Kick-2” after a drop in collections post-release, Telugu film industry has proved it has an agility and strategic focus on shifting gears when things demanded. This is a healthy aspect of an industry which wants to outgrow outside Bollywood and Kollywood.
2015 has been an epoch-making year for Tollywood and changed the world’s perceptions about it and also it’s own ability to surprise everybody with strategic agility and innovative marketing methods, buoyed by confidence in content and genre-strengths. Come 2016, a few days from now, we will have a bunch of new releases to usher in the leap year including “Killing Veerappan” releasing on January 1st itself, a fantastic lineup for Sankranti and of course, the sequels to Bahubali and beyond. Hoping and wishing that 2016 will be more dramatic and exciting year for everybody who loves good cinema in Tollywood.
