A hat-trick of hits for comic hero Sunil

In a career spanning more than two decades and 200+ films, Sunil has had a notable growth as an actor who graduated from slapstick comedy with his trademark slang and dialogue delivery style to a bankable hero for a brief phase, before finally essaying a negative character in the recent blockbuster 'Pushpa'.

'Poola Rangadu', the third of his flicks in which he essayed the role of a protagonist was the third success in a row for him as the leading man. Beginning with 'Andala Ramudu' in 2006, he went on to hit the bull's eye in his second release 'Maryada Ramanna' directed by S S Rajamouli in 2010. Two years later he was the winning horse again with his 2012 venture 'Poola Rangadu', directed by Veerabhadram, who had made his big time entry into Telugu cinema a year earlier with the Allari Naresh film ' Aha Naa Pellanta'. All the three mentioned above were remakes from Kollywood, Hollywood and Mollywood respectively.

Remade from the 2005 super hit Malayalam movie 'Pandippada', the film was nativised to suit the Telugu audience, a common practice in film industries across the country. The original based itself in a setting which was aimed to appeal to both the Tamil and Malayalam film audiences, with a lot of interpersonal rivalry and romance thrown in between the warring parties.

The same was retained at the macro level, with changes made to make it more familiar with the Telugu audience who were used to the exaggerated histrionics of villains like Pradeep Rawat and Dev Gill who had made an impression with 'Magadheera' three years earlier. The naivete of the hero as he gets caught in the crossfire between the squabbling bad guys and how he manages his romantic encounters squaring off with one of the evil elements made the film a passable entertainer.

The Kerala flick was produced by the hero Dileep, whose movies have been a major draw as far as Telugu remakes go in the last two decades of the new millennium. The film too made huge money in that territory, mirroring the Rs 50 crore box-office collections in Telugu which gave a high slot to Sunil in the pecking order of Telugu cinema. Over the past decade since this film made it to the theatres, his career has swung between extremes and he is today not a hot prospect as he was a few years ago.