Tollywood Superstars

Over a period of four decades, we have been seeing great heroes occupying the "Leading Star" position at their peek career and how they influenced the tinsel world varied and quite interesting. Personally I believe the word "Leader" means, "care taker" in need and "being tough" in crisis.

If we look back at our Tollywood history, three stars ruled the Tinsel world spreading across generations but how they justified the role of "Leader" is always a good discussion item. I believe that each one of them did or still doing some stuff related to their leadership. Since our film industry has much more impact on the society that it needs to be, these stars were supposed to come to the public with open arms at times.

Here are my observations.

NTR: (1962 - 1983):
In Tollywood's history, the first recipient was "NTR", who is considered to date as one of the most admired film personality in Telugu. He donned lot of mythological roles with his powerful dialogue delivery and emotions. SV Ranga Rao and NTR did almost all kinds of mythological roles with heavy applause from south Indian film industry. Nartanasala was even acclaimed in International Tashkent film festival for the excellent actions. NTR after the sudden departure of SVR was left alone and switched to mass roles and became successful with numerous box office hits. He was considered as "the darling of Andhra" audiences in those years between 1967 - 1978.

Krishna: (1980 -1986)

He did wonderful things and there is no doubt about it. He encouraged lot of new talent, while supporting existing talent. He brought Sri Sri national accreditation; new features in technical departments, provided ample support in natural calamities through his fans, and helped "ignored" movie artists financially. The only thing he did wrong was jumping into politics without analyzing his personality, i.e., his frankness in speech. He thought that craze is enough to become successful in politics but not realized the tactics behind. He always challenged NTR for various reasons unknown to me.

Chiranjeevi: (1987- 2000+)

Chiranjeevi revolutionized the Telugu movies with his electrifying dances, fights and "angry young man" roles. He is encouraging new talent with announcements of making movies with "Ravi Teja" and "Uday Kiran" on his home banner. He works hard and at the time of "bashing" from ignorant, he maintains his humble attitude and deals appropriately. This fetches him more support from in and outside movie circles. He is doing "unique" charity work, which is great, and we all should be proud of him. Let's wait and see what he does if he comes to politics.

Present:

Superstar Mahesh  or Power Star Pawan Kalyan or Young Tiger NTR Jr

Telugu Cinema History

The Telugu film industry (sometimes called Tollywood) is based in Andhra Pradesh's capital city, Hyderabad. Telugu is the second largest spoken language in India. After Bollywood, more movies are produced every year in Telugu than any other language. The state also has what is claimed to be the largest film studio in the world, Ramoji Film City. The first studio for Telugu talkies was VelPictures, constructed in 1934 by P.V. Das, located at Madras. The first film made here was Sita Kalyanam. The first film made by a Telugu person, R.S. Prakash, was Bhishma Pratigna (The Pledge of Bhishma, 1922). Another important Telugu personality of this era was Y.V. Rao (1903-1973), an actor and director, whose silent film (directing) credits include Pandava Nirvana (1930), Pandava Agnathavaas (1930) and Hari Maya (1932). The first big movies in Telugu were made by the Surabhi Theatres troupes. They produced the first Telugu talkie, Bhakta Prahlad, directed by Hanumappa Munioappa Reddy in 1931. In the first few years of Telugu talkies, films were all mythological stories, taken from the stage. In 1936, Krittiventi Nageswara Rao made the first Telugu film not based on mythology, Premavijayam. The film influenced other Telugu film-makers into making such films. Some popular themes of these films (often called 'social' films) were the feudal zamindari system (Raitu Bidda, 1939), untouchability (Mallapilla, 1938), and widow remarriage. Since then, there have been both social (contemporary) and mythological or folk stories in Telugu cinema.

Over a period of four decades, we have been seeing great heroes occupying the "Leading Star" position at their peek career and how they influenced the tinsel world varied and quite interesting. Personally I believe the word "Leader" means, "care taker" in need and "being tough" in crisis.

If we look back at our Tollywood history, three stars ruled the Tinsel world spreading across generations but how they justified the role of "Leader" is always a good discussion item. I believe that each one of them did or still doing some stuff related to their leadership. Since our film industry has much more impact on the society that it needs to be, these stars were supposed to come to the public with open arms at times.

Here are my observations.

NTR: (1962 - 1983):
In Tollywood's history, the first recipient was "NTR", who is considered to date as one of the most admired film personality in Telugu. He donned lot of mythological roles with his powerful dialogue delivery and emotions. SV Ranga Rao and NTR did almost all kinds of mythological roles with heavy applause from south Indian film industry. Nartanasala was even acclaimed in International Tashkent film festival for the excellent actions. NTR after the sudden departure of SVR was left alone and switched to mass roles and became successful with numerous box office hits. He was considered as "the darling of Andhra" audiences in those years between 1967 - 1978.

Krishna: (1980 -1986)

He did wonderful things and there is no doubt about it. He encouraged lot of new talent, while supporting existing talent. He brought Sri Sri national accreditation; new features in technical departments, provided ample support in natural calamities through his fans, and helped "ignored" movie artists financially. The only thing he did wrong was jumping into politics without analyzing his personality, i.e., his frankness in speech. He thought that craze is enough to become successful in politics but not realized the tactics behind. He always challenged NTR for various reasons unknown to me.

Chiranjeevi: (1987- 2000+)

Chiranjeevi revolutionized the Telugu movies with his electrifying dances, fights and "angry young man" roles. He is encouraging new talent with announcements of making movies with "Ravi Teja" and "Uday Kiran" on his home banner. He works hard and at the time of "bashing" from ignorant, he maintains his humble attitude and deals appropriately. This fetches him more support from in and outside movie circles. He is doing "unique" charity work, which is great, and we all should be proud of him. Let's wait and see what he does if he comes to politics.

Tollywood Superstars