The Besties And Baddies In The Year 2014

By Rayarao Sriram - Tuesday 30 December 2014 - 1 Comment

2014 has come to an end and almost 193 straight films and 82 dubbing films released this year. The success rate of our Telugu film industry is always less and the tradition continued for 2014 too. We don’t have films like Queen, Mary Kom, Haider (Bollywood) or Malayalam films like Banglore Days, How Old Are You and Tamil films like Jigarthanda, Madras. But we have our own formulaic films. We are ready to grab the remake rights of all the super hits in Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi. It doesn’t mean that we don’t have good films but we find them very rare in our industry. Out of 193 straight films, more than half are made following a similar format. So, we lack uniqueness in content and it results in failures.

The year started with the most awaited psychological thriller drama 1-Nenokkadine starring Superstar Mahesh babu and Kriti Sanon directed by Sukumar. The film is considered as a flop but Mahesh gained a lot of respect by attempting this film and 1-Nenokkadine is a path breaking film. One of the most discussed topics in Social media is 1-Nenokkadine and Mahesh babu performance in this film is like never before and never again. Unfortunately, the film ended up resulting losses to producers. With a day gap, Yevadu released and stood as Sankranthi winner. After several postponements, Yevadu hit the theatres and being a commercial mass entertainer the audience easily connected to it and Yevadu is the first hit in 2014.

Nithiin starrer Heart Attack is an above average flick which boosted the career of Puri Jagannadh who is in flops. The year 2014 has been lucky for many small budgeted films. Many small films with good content did well at the box office and also received critical appreciations. Chandamama Kathalu directed by Praveen Sattaru is one good film which tried to show the real essence of life. Pratinidhi directed by Prashanth Mandava also stood as a different film. The film is greatly appreciated by critics. Actor Srinivas Avasarala made his debut as a director with a heart-warming story Oohalu Gusagusalade. The film is a super hit and brought profits to the producer Sai Korrapati. OGG stood as a successful romantic entertainer of the year. Paatashala which released in the second half of the year also impressed. Rowdy Fellow starring Nara Rohith under Krishna Chaitanya direction is also a decent film that has some different content.

The biggest blockbuster of 2014 comes in the form of Race Gurram which has Stylish Star Allu Arjun and Shruthi Hassan in the lead roles. Race Gurram is a team effort and though the film is made on a routine commercial format, the director has taken care that there are no repeated scenes, rotten and artificial comedy and unnecessary punch liners. The music composed by Thaman is impressive and Race Gurram is the winner of 2014. The much delayed and highly anticipated Auto Nagar Surya failed at the box office.

2014 is also a great year for the senior heroes of Tollywood. Nandamuri Balakrishna got a huge relief with the Super Hit Legend directed by Boyapati Srinu. Recently, the film completed 275 days. Balayya babu also entered Assembly as MLA and this year brought happiness for him in both Films and Politics. Victory Venkatesh, who is the successful remake hero, scored another hit with the remake of Malayalam film Drushyam.

The film is also titled as Drishyam in Telugu. Made with a low budget, the film collected double the investment. Akkineni family is very happy with the success of Manam which stars the three generations. The film is a grand tribute to late ANR. Balakrishna, Venkatesh and Nagarjuna are the happiest persons in 2014 with super hits in their account.

Megastar Chiranjeevi announced his comeback into films this year and fans are eagerly waiting for it. Mass Maharaj Ravi Teja also scored a hit with Power this year. His confidence levels were increased with the success of Power and he is actively taking part in Kick 2 shoot now. Senior director SV Krishna reddy made sequel for his super hit Yamaleela and failed to impress. Yamaleela 2 is a flop at the box office. Senior director Dasari Narayana Rao acted and directed Erra Bus which is a remake of Malayalam film Manjapai. The film received flop talk from the first day and it also joined the failure list.

Sharwanand scored a biggest hit in his career with the film Run Raja Run directed by Sujeeth. The film entertained all kinds of audiences and is a big relief in the second half of the year. Kona Venkat attempted a horror comedy film Geethanjali and became successful. Geethanjali collected huge revenues and ended up as a profitable venture. With this inspiration many films released as horror comedy and a few succeeded to survive. Boochamma Boochadu is one among these which collected profits. Allari Naresh is disappointed with 2014 as his Laddu Babu is a failure but his film Brother of Bommali is a relief which ended up with above average talk. Sai Dharam Tej’s debut Pilla Nuvvu Leni Jeevitham is a profitable venture where the film got above average talk and impressed the audience. At the end, the films like Undile Manchi Kaalam Mundu Munduna and Sahebha Subrahmanyam tried to impress to some extent.

The biggest flop of 2014 is Aagadu. The film which was expected to turn out as a blockbuster resulted in a flop. Superstar Mahesh Babu and Tamannah acted in lead roles and Srinu Vaitla is the director. Following the similar commercial format and having similarities with Dookudu made the fans and movie lovers angry. Aagadu is an eye opener for Mahesh babu and Srinu Vaitla and indirectly it also passed wake up calls for many writers and director who are deceiving and still trying to deceive audience with a single formula of film making. Somehow, the audience started to oppose these kinds of routine films. It all started with Aagadu. If Srinu Vaitla has to be blamed, Mahesh also deserve to be blamed because he is the superstar who accepted the story and there is a shot where Mahesh jumps in between a moving train which is never seen in any of his films in his career. There is a proud saying for fans that till date no two films of Mahesh is same and the full stop for the statement came in the form of Aagadu. The same is the case with Jr.NTR. Heroes like Ram Charan are capable of delivering hits with average and routine content but in the case of NTR, it is not happening. His two previous films Ramayya Vasthavayya and Rabhasa are considered as flops.

NTR tasted failure with Rabhasa in 2014. The audience opposed both the films and 2014 is unlucky for NTR. May be audience are serious about experiencing a change in the story selection of NTR because they knew that it is possible which is impossible in the case of other heroes who are confined to a fixed format.

Ram Charan tried a new genre with Govindudu Andarivadele and Krishna Vamshi is the director of the film. Though the film received well, it failed to bring profits and the distributors encountered losses in some areas. Gopichand scored a biggest hit in his career with the film Loukyam. Though the film was made in a routine commercial format, the screenplay and healthy entertainment quotient saved the film. It is one of the profitable ventures in this year.

Oka Laila Kosam made Naga Chaitanya feel relieved. After the super success of Manam, Chaitu came with Oka Laila Kosam and the film is an average flick. The last phase of 2014 has experienced many small films with rich and unique content.

Karthikeya is the first among those which has boosted the career of Nikhil and also collected huge profits. After Karthikeya, Ala Ela is one film which is still running in theatres successfully. A healthy comedy never disappoints and with this principle the makers of Ala Ela tasted success and gearing up for the sequel of their film. The End is one notable hit in the year 2014. The film made by a young talented team collected profits and also gained critical acclaims. Mukunda and Chinnadana Nee Kosam are the two films that released in the final week of2014. Mukunda marks the debut of Varun Tej and the film is running with average talk. Being a family entertainer is advantage for this film. Chinnadana Nee Kosam completely failed to present Karunakaran’s magic and the film made many feel thumbs down.

There are very few dubbing films which succeeded and Raja rani is the first one among them. With the concept “There is Love after Love failure and there is Life after Love Failure” the newcomer Atlee Kumar has cleverly presented a sensitive topic in a brilliant manner. Bhadram is a detective thriller which impressed us. Vikrama Simha starring animated Rajinikanth and the much hyped Sikander failed at the box office. The Vishal starrer Indrudu managed to deliver profits. The concept of Narcolepsy was incorporated into the story in an interesting way and the result is a success. Vishal and Shruthi Hassan starrer Pooja also ended up as a hit. Finally the biggest disappointment came in the form of Lingaa. The film resulted losses in many areas.

Every year, after the announcement of National awards, several people say that Telugu films were not treated well. Do we treat them well? The films like Minugurulu and Na Bangaru Thalli released in 2014. These films survived a death during theatrical release times by not getting sufficient number of theatres. But today Na Bangaru Thalli is awarded with three national awards and Minugurulu also received critical acclaims. We feel that we are not getting proper recognition at National and International level but in reality, we are habituated to the routine commercial format films and we encourage them by allocating maximum number of theatres.

Films like Na Bangaru Thalli and Minugurulu though have a limited release; people skipped them for various reasons. On a personal note, Na Bangaru Thalli is a very good film which deserves the awards but none of the actors is familiar to Telugu audience. It lack Telugu nativity and we get an impression of watching a dubbing film. But anyhow, thanks to the makers of both the films! Films like DK Bose, Rey, Jenda Pai Kapiraju, and Intinta Annamayya are yet to release and no one knew about the release dates. 2014 is also a huge disappointment for Pawan Kalyan and Prabhas fans.

And there is a film called Hrudaya Kaleyam which released in the year 2014. The only film which went on for a second release in the year made profits. The makers say that the main purpose of the film is to entertain and the purpose was served by casting a person who does not have any hero material. The social media and movie lovers stood as a great support for this film before the release and the film was projected and promoted well on Facebook. After the release of the film there are more people who hated the film. Genuinely, those who are praising the film in public are those who don’t like it much. The film ran well only in some areas and in majority of areas there are hardly 20 people per day in theatres. The bottom line of the story is accepting films like this will pave a way for some more but the road will never open for content based films like Banglore Days, Jigarthanda, and Queen etc.

P.S. : This analysis was made basing on the personal opinion of author along with considering the opinions on social media and also basing on Box-office numbers. Apologizes for mistakes!

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The Besties And Baddies In The Year 2014

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