...the boy who lost his Mega Cycle !

Ok..here it goes, a kid living in a coastal state of India, Andhra Pradesh went to watch a movie in 1997. 

This state and 3 neighboring states are known for filmy buffs, where movie watching is a culture. Films are part of any & all occasions and celebrations. Film watching is a habit and hero worshipping is an addiction here. Those days, people travelled all night in bullock carts to the nearest towns to watch the first day first show, next morning. Quite often, human pyramids are formed at the ticket counters and the one human on the top of the pyramid with his hands in the window would get the reward, the ticket(s). Torn Lungi (traditional Indian garment worn at around the waist) and vest scented with sweat were the regular attire in the theatre, since the shirt is already into pieces in the process of getting a ticket and making way into the theater to reserve a place to stand for next c.a 138 minutes. Beware, no online booking, numbered seats and Deodorants were available back then.  Of course, male and female crowd in the theater are separated by a bamboo wall separation.

Back to the story, this kid lost his cycle in the euphoria of getting the movie ticket. He enjoyed the movie till 13th reel and started feeling the pain of cycle loss thereafter, since his parents got him the cycle after his yearlong pester. After the movie, he somehow managed the loss and anger of parents. 

Now, in 2017 (after 2 decades) this kid is into movies and now a bankable star with consistent track record of hits. And, the hero of 1997 movie is stalwart of Tollywood and currently a politician by profession and a Member of Indian Parliament. His re-entry into films after 10 years in 2016 was a hurricane and shook the box office with collections. He is currently on Hot seat of MEK, Tollywood version of KBC . 

So this grown up kid is now called "Natural star" Naani and was the guest of MEK show and narrates how he lost his cycle 2 decades back to the host, Padma Bhushan Megastar Chiranjeevi, who was the hero of 1997 movie, “Master”.  Master immediately agreed to redeem the loss of his cine disciple and cycle delivered at door. 

What a 360° filmy success story, “a child lost his cycle while watching a movie and gets it back after 20 years from the hero of that movie”.

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela

Crazy Strategies of Stardom..."Cheppanu Brother"

Astonishing to see the diminishing thin line between real and reel life. Why do we have to hear all the hard work the crew went through while canning the film and why do we empathize when we hear a star is making movies just to be afloat and to make it to the shore of politics, before his boat is moored to the Quay, forever (???). Here, I am referring to the Power Star Pawal Kalyan, who was the power point for the existing Andhra Pradesh government during last electoral battle and now getting ready with Janasena for 2019.  Are these statements and confessions influence the common viewer to watch the film?

The promotion strategy changes every time, after a while. Till the recent past, the audio events have always been the biggest platform to rave about the movies & to show how unique from the rest in the history of industry. Now a days with the invention of Prerelease function sans audio event is the new platform to talk about the product. Specially, on Tamil & Telugu platforms, the hero worship is beyond comparison with any other film industry. The onstage talk nowhere matches the result of the movie at the ticket window, in most of the cases.

And then you have teaser for first look (worst part), first look, teaser, promo, theatrical trailer and numerous tweets and quotes on social media about the film and performance on YouTube views of these never ending tits n bits of film. The other day, Allu Arjun said “Cheppanu Brother” (refused to take name of Power star on stage during promotions of Sarainodu), which stirred the bigger sand storm on social media than any hero introduction (sand storm) scene in Telugu & Tamil film put together, ever. Then, fans started creating YouTube record of dislikes for teaser of his forthcoming movie DJ.

However, it’s changing again. Pawan has always shown his humble side in promoting his movies. He was always shy on dais with limited words till his Janasena avatar. Now he is aggressive and promoting his movies with a disclaimer statement to watch if it’s watchable. He admits the fact that his fans waited for 7 long years for him to deliver a blockbuster post Khushi in 2001.

Even Jr. NTR has started downsizing his reel image post Janata garage. He caution crowd to go home safe and to think of parents more than worshipping on-screen heroism.

The surprise among the lot is upcoming actor, Vijay Devarakonda who took to twitter and apologized to those who didn’t like his recent film “Dwaraka”….a new strategy again???

Blowing Woods: UTurn of Film making down south

Blowing Woods: UTurn of Film making down south: The film making has taken big U Turn down south at least. Few notables (which I have covered so far) in this category are Lucia ...

UTurn of Film making down south

The film making has taken big UTurn down south at least. Few notables (which I have covered so far) in this category are Lucia & UTurn from Kannda; Kaka Muttai, Visarane & Joker from Tamil; Pelli Choopulu, Yevade Subramaniam, Kshanam & Manamantha from Telugu and Drishyam almost all box offices.

Each one is a gem in itself and changed the way of film making down south making way for fresh talent and forcing established ones to mend ways of commercial image & cinema. Tamil and Kannada industries are known for experimenting quite often, I am excited to see the wave change in Telugu industry where Ram Charan took Dhruva route taking a back seat for making space for story and antagonist, hero & heroine met and lived happily ever after was not the case in Jr. NTR’s Janata Garage and Nag limited himself to wheelchair for 2.38 hours as quadriplegic with support of Karthi (this role was turned down by Jr NTR) in Oopiri, a French adaption of ‘The Untouchables”. Item & hero intro songs are not mandatory, separate comedy track is no more compulsory at least for now in most of the Telugu movies.

The stories of these film makers behind making these off beat movies are equally fascinating.

Pawan Kumar (Lucia & UTurn) pulled off Lucia on first ever Kannada crowd funding. UTurn was made on a real story of where a guy jumps off 13^th floor and emerges unhurt because his dead wife saves him after her death (with daughter) in an road accident on Bangalore road owing to common mistake people make to move road blocks.

Rakshit Shetty of Ulidavaru Kandanthe fame (English translation, As seen by others) who admits that he used to work on his theatre/film projects during his office hours, as he always managed to find couple of leisure hours during 9-5 window, honest confession, is isn’t it? This movie makes you to form your own climax basis different perspective of 4 characters you travel with during the film and leaves you unanswered of your own questions

Chandra Sekhar Yeleti worked on his Manamantha project for good 3 years especially on tightening the screenplay (must be record time for a Telugu director) to make a compelling climax at the airport and struggled to find artists with no Telugu commercial film baggage to make this story realistic.

Manikandan’s outstanding debut is all about aspiring story of two kids to taste Pizza at the newly opened hut in the slum grounds, where they used to play and steal eggs (their main source of protein) from crow nests on the only tree, which is now cut down. Manikandan says, why we judge people by appearance and colour, even we don’t spare animals & birds. Interesting timing here to match idiotic comments of Tarun Vijay racism row: ‘We’ve south India... we live with black people’. Always admire the beauty of parrot but now crow….that makes the title “Kaka Muttai” (Crow Eggs), finally crow gets its glamorous filmy touch and film won National award for Best Children’s Film of 2015.

Why should the parrots & white have all the Glory?

The story boards of these movies leaves me to recite a poem of great Telugu poet Sri Sri (Srirangam Srinivasa Rao)

Kaadedi kavitakanarham kukkapilla, sabbu billa, aggi pulla (Nothing is inappropriate for a poem - a puppy, a bar of soap or a matchstick)....

Blowing Woods: The Ghazi…backstory

Blowing Woods: The Ghazi…backstory: This guy (all of 23) out of Film school in Australia came back to Hyderabad and built a submarine with all his money (INR 30 lacs) and...

The Ghazi…backstory

This guy (all of 23) out of Film school in Australia came back to Hyderabad and built a submarine with all his money (INR 30 lacs) and started shooting a (short) film, which eventually couldn't take off due to lack of funding, while his parents were still in shock that their lad was not graduated from B school but from a film institute. Building a submarine for a short film, grabbed the attention of many film makers in Hyderabad including Rana (actor and heir of Suresh Productions), they immediately called him to present the story board. Here is the twist, he presented the whole story board on temp 3D animation, which is pretty new practice in Tollywood. He did this to hide his incompetency to narrate the story.

Production house was so impressed that they decided to make this movie on National level and tied up with Dharma Productions. The initial start cast of Surabhi Theatre group were mostly replaced by main stream actors. Further, Cinematographer Madhi, Editor Sreekar Prasad were onboard to anchor "The Ghazi". Stalwarts of industry Amitabh, Chiranjeevi and Surya, provided the narration part of Hindi, Telugu & Tamil versions respectively. The end product resulted as a profitable venture with more than 300% in revenues commercially and tonnes of critical acclamation for the whole team & Sankalp, the Captain of Ghazi the movie.

What a platform for Sankalp to showcase his skills, who started a film (initially short) with INR 30 lacs, realizing that he wouldn’t go far and now landing in the laps of Karan Johar.

…..back story behind the story, why did he built a submarine?...because he wanted to film a story which can start and end at the same place to make best use of resources with shoe string budget.

Well, Sankalp has just started off his journey towards western filmy coast of Mumbai from coastal Andhra.....