Samantha joins elite list of crowd-pullers

With glam diva Samantha delivering a blockbuster with 'Oh Baby!,' she has joined the elite list of crowd-pullers in T-town.

She is in the league of Anushka Shetty and Nayantara who can draw crowds on the strength of their names. "Samantha has pulled off a massive hit and the audience thronged theatres to watch her delightful performance.

No doubt, she is the new Queen Bee of T-town," says distributor Tummala Ram Mohan Rao, who describes it as a big achievement of sorts.

"After Anushka and Nayantara, Samantha has also attained stardom of her own and could give a boost to dying women-oriented movies. Now directors will be prompted to pen stories with Samantha in mind," he adds.

However, Tapsee and Tammannaah couldn't spin box office magic in the two the Telugu states with their movies-'Game Over' and 'Abhinetri 2' respectively, so, not all glam divas have attained 'star' status.

"Becoming a torch-bearer of lady-oriented movies is a challenging task. Apart from Tapsee and Tamannaah, even Nayantara couldn't set box office on fire with her last solo-heroine release 'CocoKokila'.

Although, the tale of a drug peddler minted gold at the box office in Tamil Nadu.

"We can't take things for granted. Actually, female stars are unable to draw sensational openings on par with their male colleagues, once that happens, then more producers and distributors will bet money on actresses and things will turn better for female stars," informs distributor Balusu Rama Rao.

Barring 'Oh Baby' which was a family entertainer, most of the glam divas like Anjali, Tamannaah, Hansika and Trisha banked on horror movies but failed miserably.

"Some actresses felt that horror movies will be a safe bet. But few dented their careers by following this beaten track. However, Samantha, who failed with horror movie 'Raju Gari Gadi 2..', picked a sci-fi drama 'Oh Baby' and proved a point.

In fact, Tamannaah walked out of 'Raju Gari Gadi 3' and it was a wise decision. Now, she is pinning her hopes on 'That is Mahalakshmi', a tale of a middle-class girl, who goes to honeymoon alone, to bag more female-centric movies.

If actresses prefer social dramas over horror and thriller movies, then it would be a game-changer of sorts," says distributor Bharat Bhushan and adds "Kajal's role with negative shades in 'Sita' turned out to be a damp squib, so divas better avoid bold roles," he concludes.