Hits and flops are part and parcel of the film industry. No director can guarantee a successful film to his producer. But what he can guarantee to his producer is that he will complete the film within the stipulated time, with the resources available and the budget allotted. Even if the film turns out to be a flop, there will still be some credibility for that director, and he will get a few more films to direct.
But if a director makes a royal misuse of the resources, changes the script as and when he likes and goes on shooting the film for years altogether, causing the budget to shoot up by 2-3 times, and then delivers a colossal disaster in the end, then it can be said that his career as a director is almost over.
Surender Reddy had the best of resources at his disposal. He had an actor who was ready to commit anything to his film. He had a big banner, a high budget, and abundant time to make Agent. But what he delivered, in the end, is what nightmares are made of.
Except for his debut movie, Athanokkade, Surender Reddy has always worked with big stars. Despite that, his success ratio is not too high.
Surender Reddy was supposed to do a film with Allu Arjun, but after Agent, no tier-1 hero would agree to commit (waste?) his time and efforts on a Surender Reddy film. His reputation has been damaged very badly. He has joined the likes of Puri Jagannadh, who suffered a similar fate after Liger.
He will have to settle for some medium-range hero who is also desperate to score a success. It will be quite a challenge for Surender Reddy to come out of this bad phase from here on and join the list of big directors in Tollywood again.
