“Chi deenamma… akkada vaalaki Dorothylu, Baththalu, Modha Rathrilu, Bethalahem Kudumba Unit lu. Manakemo Peddilu, Paradiselu, Romanchakam, Epiclu, Bhogilu… hatttt!”
This sarcastic social media rant sums up the growing frustration among a section of Telugu moviegoers. While other industries are experimenting with different stories and genres, Tollywood seems increasingly obsessed with raw dramas, excessive violence and mass elevation scenes.
The latest example is Bhogi, starring Sharwanand and directed by Sampath Nandi. The teaser has received mixed reactions. While some appreciate its raw setting and rustic flavour, others feel Telugu cinema has explored this territory too many times in recent years.
From Peddi to The Paradise, audiences have seen stories about oppressed communities, brutal local power structures, ruthless villains and angry heroes desperate for recognition emerge as saviors.
The settings may change, but the treatment often feels the same. The poor suffer endless atrocities, powerful villains rule the land, and the hero arrives to set things right through brutal violence and mass action scenes involving chopped-off heads and limbs.
Meanwhile, other industries are dishing out films like Dhurandhar, Hanuman Ansh, Dorothy, Baththa, Modha Rathri, and Bethlehem Kudumba Unit in different genres and unique narratives. Many feel Telugu cinema needs to explore fresh concepts and different storytelling approaches instead of repeatedly relying on familiar mass formulas. Enough is enough.
Bhogi may still surprise audiences with its content as a teaser alone cannot decide a film’s fate. However, the mixed response highlights a growing problem. Many viewers are tired of gloomy faces, endless suffering, raw violence and heroes fighting to liberate oppressed communities, especially after The Paradise.
Tollywood does not need to abandon mass cinema. But audiences want variety and fresh ideas. They do not want the same suffering, bloodshed and hero elevations served repeatedly with a different village and a new title.
The team of Megastar Chiranjeevi’s actioner Kaaka, directed by Bobby Kolli and produced by Venkat…
Mohammed Shami’s India return has already been a big talking point, but Dinesh Karthik’s latest…
