Well-told stories strike a chord

These days young actors are relying on good stories over hero-centric movies to strike a chord with the masses. Move over filmmakers of mindless action movies and slapstick comedies, T-town viewers are patronising well-told stories to change the face of Telugu cinema.

The recent hit 'Evaru' reiterates the fact that well-made movies will attract more eyeballs. "The raising fortunes of Adivi Sesh is almost proportionate to the rise of story-driven movies in T-town.

'Kshanam', 'Goodachari' and 'Evaru' have showcased the changing taste of Telugu audience, who are looking for some cerebral stuff over cliched masala movies," says director Bheemaneni Srinivas Rao.

Earlier, Naga Chaitanya delivered the biggest grosser of his career 'Majili'(Rs 30 crore plus in twin Telugu states), playing a boy-next-door cricketer, away from his muscle-flexing roles like 'Savyasachi.'

"It is good that Naga Chaitanya has realized the futility of masala movies and picked a strong story revolving around frustrated young star who gives up cricket after losing his ladylove and unable to adjust with his wife.

Naga Chaitanya fights demons within than outside and put his career back on track," says distributor Vamsi Sekhar. Similarly, Nani was at his best in 'Jersey' and pulled off an award-winning performance in a tragic story of Ranji cricketer.

"We don't need staple comedy tracks and raunchy dance numbers to spin box office magic and it is the season of honest movies like 'Majili' and 'Jersey' and more good stories are set to roll in the days to come,' adds producer Madhura Sreedhar.

Another action hero Kalyan Ram changed tracks and did a nail-biting thriller '118' and tasted BO success. "New generation stars have realized that young viewers are high on taste.

Any film that matches their intelligence, will draw their attention, who then make it a box office winner. We can't take them for a ride with no-brainer action movies without any logic or reason. Now-a-days even anger of the hero has to be justified, unlike in the past," points out director Gunasekar.

With 'Mahanati' and 'Rangasthalam' bagging national awards, surely the taste of Telugu audience and national jury members are matching which rarely happened in the past.

"Telugu cinema has been taken seriously these days at national awards, thanks to talented young filmmakers," says director Chandra Siddarth, ex- jury member in International Film Festival of India.

"Other language filmmakers used to look down upon commercial Telugu films. Now, we are offering heart-wrenching stories to give a fillip to our cinema, far away from usual dishoom dishoom stuff."