Outside of Telugu stars and directors there are few others who have created such star status for them in Telugu Film Industry by creating fans locally. Telugu audience look forward to their film which in turn helps them churn out huge blockbusters here. Who are those selected outsiders and who is number 1 among them?
In TFI it was always directors from Tamil films who had created brands for them locally. Be it K Balachander, Bharathiraja in olden days or the likes of Shankar, Mani Ratham in the 90’s or AR Murugadoss, Selva Raghavan and Gautam Menon in the present. Among the heroes first it was Kamal Haasan and he was followed by Rajinikanth in the 90’s post the twin success of Basha and Pedarayudu. Recent actors to make a mark are Suriya, his brother Karthi and Vikram for a short duration.
One look at those in the list and it is clear that director Shankar and actor Rajinikanth are the two who lead others by mile. No wonder then the biggest two dubbed hits are in their combination. However in the recent past actor Suriya and director Murugadoss too have emerged as strong forces in Telugu market. The actor’s Singham and director’s Thuppakki grossed more than Shankar’s last release Snehitudu without any star director in former’s case and without any star actor in latter’s case (for Telugu audience) which made them strong contender for the top slot.
A showdown of sorts was initiated last year when they all had proposed releases one by one. Unfortunately for Suriya he delivered a turkey in the form of Sikindar and Rajinikanth followed him with twin disasters in the form of Kochadaiiyaan and Lingaa. Murugadoss wasn’t able to get his film Kaththi released at all. And now the last man remaining is director Shankar with I. Will it prove who the biggest star is among the dubbed films? Will Shankar reign supreme? What do you think? Share us your thoughts as the film I hits the screen in few hours.
