Cop stories back in vogue, but magic wanes

Gen X stars Sai Dharam Tej, Sundeep Kishan, Nara Rohit, Sharwanand and debutant Ganta Ravi share one thing in common-all donned khaki uniform. After playing lover boy and boy-next-door roles, these young actors want to showcase their machoism in the role of an upright cop and get closer to masses.

“Every actor worth his salt wants to try his hand in cop stories which fetch him angry-young man image overnight and their career will take a new course from the existing one,” says director Gunasekar who claims that it would be difficult for a debutant to carry the role of a tough cop.

However, ace director Krishna Vamsi who is known for penning hard-hitting movies, is now dishing out a cop story with four cops in the film- Sundeep Kishan, Sai Dharam Tej , Prakash Raj and Pragya Jaiswal. “It is kind of a tribute to real-life cops who face lot of obstacles in discharging their duties but still hold on to their spirit to protect the law of the land,” says a source, close to the unit.

According to distributor Vishnumurthy, cop stories are unable to spin box-office magic like in the past. “In recent past `Temper’ and `Pataas’ were two cop stories which set cash registers ringing but funny cop story `Radha’ failed to impress,”
Summing up the trend, producer Kumar Choudary who made blockbuster cop story `Vikramarkudu’ says “Ravi Teja moved to next level with that blockbuster.

Even other stars like Pawan Kalyan, Mahesh Babu, Balakrishna and Surya tasted unprecedented success as tough cops. Now Tamil star Karthi is also playing a trigger-happy cop in his upcoming film `Khaki’, so the trend is extending to Kollywood too,”

By BVS Prakash