As expected, Tollywood’s biggest movie season – Sankranti is seeing a feast of four films releasing next week. As the rush for the theatres increases, the stakes have gone up for all the heroes participating this year. From the menu offered, it looks appetising and promising with a good representation from all the old and new guard of the Telugu Film Industry (TFI).
Let’s begin with “ Naannaku Prematho” starring NTR.Jr. Directed by Sukumar. Promises to be a slick and stylish film presenting NTR Jr. In a never-before-seen avatar of a metrosexual hermit. With heavy-weight add-on starcast of Jagapathi Babu (as the villain) and Rajendra Prasad (as the father) and music by DSP, the film is supposed to be an autobiographical leaf out of director Sukumar’s life and a touching but intelligent story of his relationship with his father who is no more. It is a milestone 25th film for NTR Jr and everybody is awaiting this film since the time in making. The only catch is, there is trouble brewing with shortage of theatres for this film which is releasing on 13th January, two days before Sankranti. NTR Jr’s last film to release for Sankranti was “Adhurs” which became a blockbuster film of that year and continues to dominate the TRPs every time it is aired.
The second Sankranti movie is “Dictator” starring Balakrishna and starlets Anjali and Sonal Chauhan. It is Balayya’s 99th film and an ambitious comeback film for Sankranti for Balayya fans. Balayya’s past Sankranti releases “Samarasimha Reddy”,”Narasimha Naidu”, “Lakshmi Narasimha” have become blockbusters and all of them created a wave of hysteria post-release eclipsing all the other releases. Music by Thaman has already given the film and the promos look to be a promising entertainer in true Balayya style. Some of the stock shots resemble the vintage movies of the legendary N.T.Rama Rao like “KD No.1” and “Gaja Donga” with urban appea. That mixed with Balayya-type feudal plot can be a killer combo. All eyes therefore, on “Dictator” whether Balayya can still dictate the box-office @ Sankranti.
The third film “Soggade Chinni Nayanaa” is the most interesting film so far in Nagarjuna‘s career. With a dual role, and dressed-to-kill with rustic splendour and perfect “panche kattu”, Nagarjuna is seen serenading the dimpled beauty Lavanya Tripathi in one generation and the lovely Ramya Krishna in the other. With music by Anup Rubens and speculation high about the plot about whether the older Nagarjuna is a ghost who is visible to only Ramyakrishna, and a cameo by Naga Babu as Lord Yama, the film is creating a huge buzz in trade circles whether it has the potential to upset the favorites of the season. The last time that a Nagarjuna film came on a Sankranti was for his second film “Manu”. That was more than 26 years ago.
The last film “Express Raja” directed by “Venkatadri Express” fame Merlakapati Gandhi, releasing on the 14th Jan is a wild-card entry. Coming from the banner of UV Creations who have yet to taste a defeat at the box-office, “Express Raja” has the handsome young star Sarvanand who has bagged two hits already with “Run Raja Run” and “Malli Malli Idi Raani Roju” and creating impact with intelligent selection of diverse scripts. A heartthrob with Tamil audiences too, “Express Raja” promises to be another urbane entertainer with stylish grooves and interesting script. Because of past hits under UV banner, this film is expected to do good business in overseas markets also.
After a long time, we find that Tollywood has selected a lovely menu of various genres for a Sankranti fare where people flock to theatres with their loved ones in the comfort of their native place. It is an age-old tradition that distributors know well and want to encase. Unless the film is really bad, almost most films collect good openings because many folks in B and C centres see Sankranti films back-to-back. But unlike in normal releases when films clash and still run, Sankranti film feasts are different in one aspect. That is, if a film released for Sankranti is a flop, then even the most overbooked theatre owners ruthlessly take out the films and increase the screens for the Sankranti winners based on word-of-mouth publicity. That is the real difference between Sankranti films and other films released throughout the year where even dud films are “forced” to run for 50 days and so on.
Given this backdrop, it will be an exciting Sankranti this time as we see a film each coming from the Old Guard (Nagarjuna and Balayya), Next-gen (NTR Jr.) and the uber-cool gen (Sarvanand). Let us see who will be the real Sankranti Monagadu. If Tollywood is lucky, we will see Sankranti Monagallu (in plural). Amen!
