It has been a war of quantity, and not quality, for some time now.
The number of prints and the number of theatres for release has now come to be the measure to decide the fate of any new film, which is decided just merely after the first show ? if you go by the trend.
Sankranti in 2012 is heading for a feast, with a decent number of movies starring top actors and from renowned banners coming up, with the number of prints and theatres higher than ever.
Businessman has been in the news right from its muhurat shot, as if to remind the director and lead actor of the deadline. Every development related to the film has been widely carried in the media. With
Dookudu ending the drought of successful Telugu films, Businessman's pot was kept boiling up to the audio release and beyond.
Whether this Mahesh-Puri combination recreates the
Pokiri magic will be known in a couple of week. Pokiri had an even sprinkle of violence, comedy, romance and songs, but what Puri will do this time cannot be guessed from the trailers or the audio.
Venkatesh, who is slowly switching to mature roles, with his home production promoting Ra.Na for younger roles, is appearing in Bodyguard, a remake of a Malayalam film of the same name. The Tamil version will also be out during the same time.
Venkatesh plays the title role in this movie, and is paired with Trisha.
Recently, Venkatesh played the role of a Police Commissioner in
Eenadu, a remake of
A Wednesday, and was not very convincing, although he was good in patches.
Ravi Teja, with his rustic style, appeals to quite a wide section of the audience. He is coming up with Nippu to beat the Sankranti chill. The film is in the post-production stage, and buzz is that it will catch up with the Pongal deadline.
The film stars Rajendra Prasad and Brahmanandam in the cast, with S S Thaman scoring the music and Gunasekhar directing the film. Nippu is produced by Y V S Chowdary.
Meanwhile, Sunil, who has graduated from being a comedian to a "hero", is now coming to hit the big screen as Poolarangadu. Keerthi Chawla plays the female lead in the film.
The movie, whose shooting began in August, is almost complete. Veerabhadram Chowdary is directing the film, which is being produced by Atchi Reddy.
With plenty of uncertainty, and a number of equations working in tandem, nothing is certain in Tollywood, but for the big guns. A few more movies may be added to the list, or a few may be rescheduled, or even dropped. (INN)