Gen Y take ‘dark’ route to success

After Tamil superstars like Rajnikanth (Robot), Vikram (Inkokkadu) and Surya(24) now its the turn of gen-next Telugu stars to don roles with ‘negative shades’ to showcase their hitherto unknown side and expand their fan base. Breaking a new ground is none-other-than crazy star Nani who is set to showcase his evil side in his upcoming film with Mohana Krishna Indraganti after attaining the image of a cute lover boy. 

Not to be left behind, his colleague Sharwanand is donning the role of a ‘gangster’ in his upcoming movie being directed by Sudheer Varma. “We can’t reveal the story, but Sharwanand will be seen in a new avatar,” cuts short Sudheer Varma. Earlier, jr NTR won appreciation for his dark role in `Jai Lava Kusa ‘and proved his versatility in three different roles. “It seems that new-age Telugu stars are in a mood to experiment these days. 

NTR proved that he could play both protoganist and antagonist with consummate ease in ‘Jai Luva…’ Interestingly, Rana after ‘Bahubali’, reiterated his fascination for dark role in ‘Nene Raju Nene Mantri’ and established that he is game for variety,” says famed writer Gopimohan. 
 Now it the turn of Nani and Sharwanand who made waves with positive and soft-spoken roles to change gears to re-define their image. “Although most of Telugu stars like to don roles with negative shades only a few attempt it. 

No doubt, Nani and Sharwanand intend to move out of their comfort zone and try something out-of-the box to prove their acting chops. Actually, an actor can portray varied emotions in a negative role than positive, because the latter is predictable and lacks sting,” says director Puri Jagannath. 
However, the ‘mixed’ luck for Tamil stars can’t be taken lightly. “Rajnikanth was a baddy-turned-hero and known for few powerful negative roles in the past. 

So, viewers could connect to his menacing performance in `Robot’ while Surya and Vikram tried to strike a chord with Telugu viewers in new avatars but failed,” adds Puri Jagannath. A top-league director has a different take on hero-turned-baddies “Telugu stars should refrain from doing negative roles since it will affect their hard-earned image. 

Actually, Telugu viewers can’t digest their favourite heroes doing anything wrong other than good-hearted saviour roles, so its better avoid such risks since stakes are very high on big Telugu star films,” he concludes. Nonetheless, Gen Y stars are going extra mile to attract more audience with roles that would show them in a `new light’ and break the monotony of stereotyped Telugu hero.