The Hindu Business Line : 2006 — a mixed show for Tollywood

The success of NTR-starrer Raakhi towards the end of the year has only reinforced the hopes of the Telugu film industry as it enters the New Year in a few days.

After a very long time, the industry has witnessed some spectacular hits this year, putting to rest the criticisms that it lacked creativity and that it always depended on other language films for storylines.

However, the mediocre storylines continued to hit the screens, resulting in some of the biggest flops too.

The successes included Mahesh Babu-starrer Pokiri that emerged as the biggest hit in the 75-year-old history of the Telugu film industry. Films like Andala Ramudu, Stalin and Godavari too were big hits. But it was the success of Bommarillu (starring Siddarth and Jenilia) that taught a lesson or two for the filmmakers. A `clean' film, it was received well both by the viewers and filmmakers.

Mr Tammareddy Bharadwaja had gone on record that it was really an opener. "I used to wonder why cine-goers did not appreciate some good movies. But after seeing the film, I understood what the problem was," he said.

Some small budget films such as Kitakitalu, Bhagyalakshmi Bumper Lucky Draw and Srikrishna-2006 too went well with the box office.

Notwithstanding the success spree, the number of films that were certified by the Censor Board showed a decrease from 256 last year to 215 this year.

Mass screening

Another interesting phenomenon was that the producers, taking a cue from the Hollywood and Bollywood industries, had begun to believe in mass screening of the films. At one point of time, just two films -- Stalin and Boss - were being shown in half of the 2,150 theatres in the State.

The idea was to grab the maximum number of eyeballs to cash in on the image of the filmstar. It was also argued that it would help fight piracy.

Not everything rosy

It didn't mean that everything was rosy for the industry during the year. There was a spree of failures that left even some big stars in a spot. Films like Ashok, Boss and Bangaram disappointed the crowds, resulting in huge losses. The row over ban on dubbing films had created flutter in the industry, with a number of producers and technicians depending on such films raising a banner of revolt.

Despite the successes, the chambers felt that the dubbed movies had cut into the revenues of `big films'.

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2006 — a mixed show for Tollywood

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