Director’s Pain Is Justified, But Content Is the Real King

Trinadha Rao Nakkina, the director who is well known for comedy entertainers like Nenu Local and Dhamaka, vented out his frustration at the trailer launch event of his maiden production, Chaurya Paatam, earlier today. Trinadha Rao said that the theaters across the Telugu states are in a sad state of affairs due to a lack of public patronage.

Trinadha Rao said that he personally visited several theaters in the Telugu states and that the situation is particularly quite worse in Andhra Pradesh. “I do not know why audiences have stopped coming to theaters. Many theaters are cancelling second shows. The situation is more or less the same even for star heroes’ movies. Our livelihoods are dependent on the tickets purchased by audiences,” he added.

To give credit where it’s due, Trinadha Rao’s frustration is justified and understandable. Many theaters in AP and Telangana remaining unfilled even during the summer season will ring danger bells for film trade. However, here’s a practical insight. Audiences, Telugu movie lovers in particular, always prefer watching well-made movies on the big screen.

But the trend has changed now, and audiences are not ready to waste their hard-earned money on movies that are made with average or bad content. For example, a Rs 300 crore movie like Game Changer ended up as a disaster and collected way less than Sankranthiki Vasthunnam, which was made on a meager budget of about Rs 50 crores.

The above scenario is enough to prove that audiences are ready to encourage movies that engage them with strong content. Other recent examples are Nani’s Court and Mad Square. Both the movies were made on a low budget but ended up amassing over Rs 50 crores and Rs 75 crores, respectively. Kalki, Devara, Pushpa 2, and Balagam are some of the recent Tollywood movies that became blockbusters thanks to audiences’ patronage.

On the other hand, Trinadha Rao’s recently released comedy entertainer, Mazaka, was rejected by audiences due to its poor content. It’s practically impossible to make audiences flock to theaters in huge numbers with routine and poor content. Making quality movies with fresh and interesting plotlines is the only way out for filmmakers.