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Vijay Antony puts top actors in shade
Nobody would have ever imagined that a relatively small-time Tamil actor like Vijay Antony would carve a niche for himself in T-town with a bang, that an underdog would emerge winner over favourites like Suriya, Vijay and Vishal, courtesy of the movie Bicchagadu.Â
Nobody would have ever imagined that a relatively small-time Tamil actor like Vijay Antony would carve a niche for himself in T-town with a bang, that an underdog would emerge winner over favourites like Suriya, Vijay and Vishal, courtesy of the movie Bicchagadu.
The ‘riches-to-rags’ story, struck a chord with viewers in the Telugu States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, grossing over Rs 10 crore in just a few weeks and overtaking in the process Suriya’s 24 (Rs 8 crore), Vishal’s Rayudu (Rs 4 crore) and Vijay’s Policeodu (Rs 1.5 crore), much to the delight of its distributors who are laughing their way to the bank.
“More than star- value, films with good content will always work irrespective of whether they are dubbed films or straight films,”says Ajay Kumar, director of the successful yesteryear, Tollywood sentimental-drama Mathrudevobhava. He further adds, “Bicchagadu touches upon relevant topics of human relationships like how parents make sacrifices in bringing up their children and how children reciprocate by doing their bit for their parents’ happiness and well-being. This is the USP of the film and it is bound to spin box-office magic.”
Interestingly, although Tamil star Suriya and Vishal pulled in openings on the strength of their names and managed to gross Rs 8 crore and Rs 4 crore respectively in the first week of their releases, Tamil star Vijay’s film Policeodu failed to even get decent
openings.
“For instance, Bicchagadu collected Rs 50 lakh on day one, Rs 30 lakhs on day 2 and a whopping Rs 1 crore on day three in Nizam. Similarly, it made Rs 5 crore in Andhra and Rs 2 crore in Ceded region. It ended up becoming a ‘sleeper hit’ unlike most films which have slam-bang openings, only to wither away. “It’s always better to have a slow and steady winner,” says leading distributor Srinivas of Nizam region.
Apart from reviving the waning craze for Tamil dubbed movies in the Telugu States, the film also proved that Telugu audiences have a taste for good cinema. “Telugu stars and directors always take the Telugu audiences for granted but they are paying a big price nowadays for this attitude. Even super stars like Pawan Kalyan and Mahesh Babu had to bite the dust, whereas Vijay Antony from nowhere emerged a winner. Tollywood should now at least learn to respect the taste of the audiences,” said Hari, a distributor from Nellore.
By:BVS Prakash.
