nenithey Posted December 17, 2009 Report Posted December 17, 2009 Tollywood is set for some close encounters with angels, genies and even the gods. Strictly on screen of course. The divine beings are descending in T-Town films thanks to some mindboggling SFX and imaginative scripting. Not that the Telugu film industry is alien to divine add-ons in commercial films. Reigning star, NTR Jr set the ball rolling when he did the socio-fantasy Yamadonga in 2007 and hit the BO jackpot. Now it's time for his colleagues Siddharth, Shruti Haasan and Kaajal to give the genre a shot. Filmmaker M S Raju who's not altogether new to this genre says, "I succeeded with Devi and am doing Chandi in the same genre. Kaajal aptly fits into this larger-than-life role. This will be among the costliest films I've done so far because of the breath-taking graphics." The film will go on floors from January 2010. The young team of Siddharth-Shruti and director Prakash Rao has already started shooting their trendy socio-fantasy saga. Siddharth breaks away from his popular lover boy image and plays the role of a sword-wielding warrior in this untitled flick. "Considering that socio-fantasy flicks are so rare in India, I think I am really lucky to be doing this film," says Shruti. Interestingly Prakash's dad, director K Raghavendra Rao struck BO gold when he made films in this genre. Rao's Jagadeka Veerudu Aathiloka Sundari and Sahasa Veerudu Sahara Kanya with Venkatesh were commercial successes. Yesteryear stars late NTR (Yamagola), Krishna (Jagadeekaveerudu) and Chiranjeevi (Yamudiki Mogodu) also struck lucky in this genre. However, seasoned director Kodi Ramakrishna who's most sought-after in this genre after registering superhits like Ammoru, Devi and Devullu says, "It's tough to make the audience connect to these divine characters. A lot depends on visual designing and scripting." It's also important, say filmmakers to ensure that religious sentiments are not hurt. "I had to portray Lord Yama carefully in Yamaleela. The Telugu audience laps up these films only when the divine characters are showcased properly," says director SV Krishna Reddy. While there have been duds like Sri Anjaneyam, Ghatothgachudu and Deviprudutu in this genre, it seems make-belief is once again the flavour.It would be interesting however, to see if the formula works again.
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