Women-centric movies get a booster shot

After reviving the sagging fortunes of women-centric movies with a landmark film ‘Mahanati’, talented actress Keerthy Suresh is returning with another author-backed role in a film to be helmed by Narendra. “After `Mahanati,’ I am doing a concept-based film and I believe the story will connect with the audience,” Keerthy said at the launch and declaring her intentions to focus only on ‘women-centric’ genre in T-town.

Another new-age star Tamannaah has gone in for a complete makeover with her upcoming movie ‘That is Mahalakshimi’ to show her acting chops. “Keerthy Suresh is the flavour of the season for women-centric flicks. She is talented and can carry a film on her shoulders with ease. Even glam girl Tamannaah is looking to conquer new frontriers with the Telugu remake of Hindi film ‘Queen’ to give her career a new direction,” says distributor Ramakrishna, who feels that actresses are showing more interest towards author-backed roles these days.

“After a gap, ‘Mahanati’ changed the perception of Telugu cinema besides lifting the genre of women-centric films per se and more divas will follow suit,” adds Ramakrishna. Pretty actress Anjali is also returning with a ghost story ‘Geetanjali 2’ to keep up the new momentum.Just last year, glam diva Anushka pulled off another hit film ‘Bhagmathee’. “No doubt, Anushka remains the torch-bearer of this genre and she is doing another horror flick ‘Silence’ this year to keep her stocks soaring as a crowd puller,” says distributor Bharat Bhushan.

“Actually, new-age stars like Keerthy Suresh and Tamannaah broke the notion that heroine-oriented should only be horror flicks. They became game-changers of sorts. Giving an opportunity for young writers to weave stories around female characters which is a rarity in T-town. With producers also willing to bet their money on glam divas, it is a kind of new beginning ,” says famed writer Gopi Mohan who admits that all female-centric movies are not always a safe bet. “Flops like ‘Kartavyam’, `Dora’ and ‘Chitrangadha’ prove that even heroine-oriented movie need novel scripts,” he adds.

Producer C Kalyan has a different take on this trend “Actually, some actresses take up female-centric films to showcase their acting skills afer doing mostly glam-prop roles,” and adds “while few 30-plus divas do female-centric movies to stay in the reckoning after being in the industry for more than 8 to 10 years to extend their stint.”