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The Year That Was 2000 - Mana Tollywood

After a couple of depressing years, the last year of the millennium, 2000, had been a very good one for the Telugu Film Industry. It started off on more than a positive note with the release of Kalisundaam.. Raa!, the Venkatesh-Simran starrer that went on to become a blockbuster. In a way it set the trend for more successful films that would rid the industry of its gloom. Venkatesh was to repeat his success in the last quarter of the year with Jayam Manaderaa. 

The box-office trendsetter Kalisundaam.. Raa! was followed in equal measure by Nuvvu Vastaavani, another super success, this time from Nagarjuna. Incidentally, in this film too Simran is the heroine. And she went on to bag some more films opposite the reigning superstars Balakrishna and Chiranjeevi. 

Success for Nagarjuna came at a time when he was facing an all-time low with no hit to his credit after Annamayya, that released three years back. And what a success Nuvvu Vastaavani turned out to be. For he followed it up with two more successful films - Ninne Premistaa and Azad. With this he is once again in the reckoning for the top slot. 

For Chiranjeevi too this was a good year what with his lone film Annayya doing well. His brother Pavan Kalyan who had two stupendous hits Toli Prema and Tammudu in two consecutive years, and who has emerged as the heartthrob of the youth, rounded off his hattrick with Badri. Even for Suresh who has been struggling without a ray of hope, Bhavani, the remake of Sanjay Dutt’s Vaastav did wonders to his career. He now has another film, Sivudu, with the same banner and he hopes that this would put him back in the saddle. Balakrishna’s Goppinti Alludu, with the famous filmmaker of farce, EVV Satyanarayana, could not repeat the magic of Samarasimha Reddy, but it didn’t disappoint him either. 

But the best thing to have happened to the film industry was the fact that small budget films, which have almost been phased out, have hogged the limelight and went on to become the most-talked about films. Usha Kiron Movies took the lead with its films Chitram and Nuvve Kaavali. They did so well that they gave a fresh lease of life for the other small budget filmmakers who are vying with each other to announce new films. Nuvve Kaavali introduced the former child artiste Tarun as the hero. And he couldn’t have got a better launch. The film was a rage especially with the college-going crowd and even after crossing 50 days, it is running to packed theatres.

In the small budget category, Sana Yadi Reddy made Bachelors, that displayed the insanity of youth in its most ugly form and surprisingly it went on to become a hit. It was soon followed by College which repeat the box-office performance of Bachelors. Both the films opened the floodgates of obscenity and the other filmmakers of their tribe went to the extremes in the display of vulgarity. Thus we see, in the closing month of the year, the release of Bad Boys. The makers of this film stooped so low, that it turned out to be the most disgusting film of the year without any trace of subtlety or sanity. Unfortunately, there are similar films in the pipeline that would prove to be the bane of the film industry and the audiences. 

The middle-budget films made with heroes like Srikant and Jagapati Babu though didn’t fare as well as the low-budget and the mega-budget films, had their share of successes but piggybacking on some one else's performance. The first film in this category to do well was EVV Satyanarayana Chala Bagundi. What is, frankly speaking, a dud of a film was elevated to the level of a good film thanks to the phenomenal performance of L B Sriram. Sriram later went on to bag more than 30 films busiest comedian in Tollywood today. 

Jagapati Babu who is groping in the dark for an identity had a disappointing year. He had a hit film in 
Sardukupodaam Randi, the credit for which goes more to Soundarya than to him. His subsequent releases, Bachi and Choosoddam Randi, sank without a trace pulling down with them the directors Puri Jagannath, who hit it big time with Badri, and Raja Vannem Reddy, who hogged the limelight with the super success of the low-budget film, Kshemanga Velli Labhanga Randi.

In Choosoddam Randi, the other hero who was romancing with Rambha along with Jagapati Babu was Srikant. For him the year didn’t do well either. His only success like Naveen was Chala Bagundi. He seems to be pinning his hopes on the recently released films, Sakutumba Saparivara Sametam and Tirumala Tirupati Venkatesa. But his role in both the films is on par with the rest of the cast and he doesn’t have anything significant that would help him make a stunning comeback in 2001. 

But the worst disappointment was to be Mahesh Babu’s. The two films he appeared in, Yuvaraju and Vamsi, bombed so badly at the box-office that he has hit an all-time low after making a victorious entry into the films with Rajakumarudu. He is hoping that his next film Murari with director Krishna Vamsi, known for his creative subjects and technical excellence, would bring him back to the limelight. 

With Sumant too, it is the same case, though he is a shade better than Mahesh Babu. His first film of the year, after his disastrous debut in Prema Katha, was just about okay. However, in terms of expectations it was a failure for everyone thought that this would put him in the top league what with Karunakaran, the sensational director of Toli Prema, directing it. Sumant’s next film Pelli Sambandham fared terribly at the box-office despite having a Dadasaheb Phalke award winner Akkineni Nageswara Rao to give him company and the most sought-after director Raghavendra Rao piloting the project. Let’s see how he fares in the new year. 

But everyone thought that Srihari, who made it big with Police and Deva last year, would repeat his act. Unfortunately, though in terms of releases he had four - Balaram, Shivaji, Ayodhya Ramaiah and Vijayaramaraju - only Balaram managed to do well. While his choice of subjects is one reason, the monotony of his roles is another. 

Among the actresses Soundarya was the sole heroine to remain in the top position. She acted in most of the successful films of the year which include Nagarjuna’s Ninne Premistaa and Azad, Venkatesh’s Jayam Manaderaa, Chiranjeevi’s Annayya and Jagapati Babu’s Sardukupodam Randi. The other heorine to hit big time was Simran with Kalisundaam.. Raa! and Nuvvu Vastaavani. And in the last film, she had a soul-stirring role on par with Nagarjuna. In fact, the whole film centres round Simran. Barring these two, the others have hardly any success to their credit forget about a having mind-blowing performance. 

Let us hope that the New Year would bring laurels to the leading ladies of the Telugu film industry.