Another Ravi Teja film is out and the Mass Jathara has now delivered his fifth flop in a row. What’s puzzling this time is his belief system. Ravi Teja openly says that audiences don’t accept him when he experiments, but they enjoy him in a routine, energetic mass entertainer. That was exactly his pitch during the promotions of Mass Jathara.
But in reality, the opposite has happened again. He claimed people didn’t turn up for his so-called experimental films like Tiger Nageswara Rao or Rama Rao on Duty, but Mass Jathara -a full-on commercial formula film -also failed to connect. So the question now is, what exactly should Ravi Teja be doing?
The problem lies in misconceptions. Many heroes and producers live in bubbles, often misreading what audiences actually want. The films Ravi Teja calls “experiments” were never truly experimental. Those directors failed to even deliver a half-decent product. Eagle, Ravanasura, Tiger Nageswara Rao, Rama Rao on Duty weren’t experiments, they were poorly made films -half-baked at best and rightfully rejected by audiences.
Coming to Mass Jathara, Ravi Teja believed that the audience wanted to see him in a regular routine mass entertainer. Again, he misled himself. He should realize that today’s viewers live in the OTT era, exposed to diverse and smarter content. Ironically, he has acknowledged this in several interviews, yet he still chose to make another routine, outdated mass film.
If we look back at his earlier hits, even the “mass” ones before COVID, they were not this outdated. They had high moments, an emotional layer, or genuine entertainment that clicked with the audience. What’s missing now is his sense of judgment -his ability to identify what’s working and what’s not. That’s the real issue, not the audience.
Lately, his interviews also reveal growing frustration toward viewers and social media. He slips into sarcasm or blame-shifting, instead of introspection. But before pointing fingers, Ravi Teja should take a hard look at his own filmography. The man once hailed as an inspiration is now at a stage where audiences have stopped taking him seriously.
