Tollywood as the producer of highest number of films in the country is famous for entertainers only! In spite of the box-office bottlenecks, some of the directors have tried their mettle in producing different sort of movies like thrillers, leaving all the reservations in respect of commercial viability! It is interesting to note that, some thrillers have done well in collections also when they have been crafted with good screenplay, plot and starcast interwoven with an interesting crime element! The suspense factor and the mysterious plot, the narrative on the screen and the arrangement of scenes to put the eyes and mind of the audience on the screen are the ingredients in making these thrillers to click!
RGV's mark:
Ram Gopal Varma, as the visionary trend-setter in every point of Telugu cinema has made thrillers into the most admirable movies for all sections of people! His new style of movie making and the themes along with all the technical inputs has pulled the audience to the theatres. He succeeded in creating a star status to and people's approval for the thrillers on par with family entertainers! His Kshana Kshanam where Sridevi-Venkatesh-Paresh Rawal team had made a magic to give a classic touch to this genre cinema. Ramu's another movie, Anaganaga Oka Roju with JD Chakravarthi and Urmila Matondkar in the lead roles, has also dragged the public, especially youth to the cinema halls.
Ganga Raju's role:
Here, we cannot ignore the role and contribution of Gunnam Ganga Raju in making the thrillers as the different cinema on Telugu screen! He is the master brain behind the recent thrillers of great applause like Aithe, Anukokunda Oka Roju! These Chandrashekhar Yeleti directed flicks have carved their own niche on Telugu cinema with a novel screenplay run! His another movie, Okkadunnadu, which is a Gopichand starrer is also had all the qualities of a thriller!
Another promising young director, Shekhar Suri, had made a movie named A Film by Arvind and tasted the success. This Rajiv Kanakala starrer was appreciated by the critics and the audience alike.
Latest thrillers:
After a gap of two or more years, Mantra, another thriller had hit the screens recently. The Charmi starrer has produced with a meager budget of Rs.2.5 crores but now the movie is running into packed houses, making it a hit of the year! Now the thriller galore is followed by another flick, Anasuya , directed by Allari RaviBabu. Bhoomika played the lead role as an investigative journalist in the movie and the initial reports gave a satisfactory result now!
The film critics are finding it as the Thrillers time now in Telugu filmdom for the present. How long it will continue to establish itself into a trend is not known. But it certainly will have an impact on the cinemas to come in the future. The Rajiv Kanakala-Allari Naresh's movie Visakha Express is already on the line to prove whether the Tollywood now is going through the Thrillers genre or not !
------------Harikrishna Mamidi
