Date: December 12, 2009
You’d have thought that fresh faces would be welcome in Tollywood. But this has been a year of upsets for three much-hyped female debutants in Telugu films.
Mani Ratnam’s discovery and child star Shamili was the first newcomer who failed to impress the audience in her screen outing Oy with teen heartthrob Siddharth. Veteran actress Radha’s daughter Kartika was touted as the star to watch out for considering she was making her first screen splash with another talked about debutant Naga Chaitanya. Unfortunately for Kartika, Josh’s lukewarm response at the ticket windows meant she had to scout for meatier roles in Mollywood films.
The newest star debutante to have missed the BO jackpot is Bollywood import Kangna Ranaut. Her Ek Niranjan is tottering at the BO after a great opening. Kangna who’s been paid a whopping Rs 1 crore for her film had said that she actually, “deserved” more than what she “was paid.” But despite a proven track record in Hindi films and a much-hyped pre-release promotion, the actress didn’t quite deliver what was expected. Producer Aditya Ram says, “After tremendous openings, the film is fetching decent collections,” but goes on to add that perhaps the local audience didn’t like the “fair and slim actress who didn’t look like a conventional heroine of a Tollywood film.”
Not that the Telugu audience was receptive to southern debutantes Shamili and Kartika either! Despite a spontaneous act in her debut Telugu film, Shamili didn’t benefit at all. In fact, most moviegoers were unaware of her presence in the film till the film actually hit the screens, no thanks to a decision to keep her under wraps until the film’s actual release.
Star kid Kartika was also careful about over-exposure before Josh released in theatres. “My mother felt that talent would speak for itself. And we knew that the film was Chaitanya’s debut vehicle, so it was fair that he should be the centre of attraction,” was her sporting answer. Today she’s doing a Malayalam film Makara Manju and doesn’t have a T-Town film in hand.
So, why has the local audience rejected the three debutantes? More importantly, will their flop debut put an end to the Tollywood careers of Shamili, Kangana and Karthika? “It would unfair to say one flop means the end of their Tollywood film career but audience appreciation is important even for debutantes,” says filmmaker Eashwar Reddy.May be there will be a Take Two for these beauties some day soon. |
