The year 2014 has not been a particularly good year for the Telugu film industry, one that averages between 150 and 200 straight films plus about a 100 dubbed from other languages, primarily, English, Hindi, Tamil and few more Indian languages.
After Bollywood, it is Telugu tinseltown that produces the second largest number of films but it has always been plagued with a success ratebetween 12 and 15 per cent a year. But in 2014, it is estimated that 195 straight films and 82 more dubbed ones hit the screens, but considering the production values and the strength of the script, analysts pegged the success rate at a bare 8.5 per cent. The more than Rs. 1,200 crore industry witnessed only a few hits.
Among big ones, productions that came with more pre-production than post-production hype for more reasons than one, but failed to deliver were ‘One’ and ‘Aagadu’ starring Mahesh Babu and the NTR-starrer ‘Rabhasa’. Even ‘Lingaa’ with which Rajnikant wanted to impress fans out here did not click. While those involved would not comment on record, it is a known fact that dozens of people who betted big did not manage to make the box office ring.
Big films that became a hit in the true sense of the term included ‘Legend’ in which Nandamuri Balakrishna plays the lead and ‘Race Gurram’ with Allu Arjun as hero. They are ‘jubilee’ films - they cross a 100 days first, then go on to touch silver jubilee (25 weeks or 175 days).
‘Legend’ is racing towards becoming the only golden jubilee this year (50 weeks) - it is still in theatres at Proddatur and Yemmiganur, while ‘Race Gurram’ has already trotted past the 100-day mark.
Nagarjuna’s ‘Manam’ was a sentimental surprise with three generations of Akkineni family members – Nageswara Rao, Nagarjuna and his son Naga Chaitanya doing key roles apart from Akhil in a cameo, considering it came after the demise of the thespian. Other big films that managed ‘average’ or slightly above average were ‘Dhrushyam’ (Venkatesh) and ‘Yevvadu’ and Govindhudu Andarivaade le’ (Ramcharan).
Relatively-smaller movies that gave the makers their money back include ‘Oohalu Gusa Gusalaade’, ‘Karthikeya’, ‘Lovers’, ‘Geetanjali’, ‘Lakshmi Raave Maa Intiki’, ‘Mukunda’ and ‘Chinadana Neekosam’ that released on December 25 and was the last straight film to hit the screens in 2014.
