Mega stardom of Tollywood stars might be garnering praise and accolades all over the world, but not many are aware of the hardships or the ‘darker side’ that the stars face to become icons.
With Tollywood full of ‘behind the curtain’ stories of how the actors, filmmakers and singers have struggled to make it big, the filmmakers today make the youngsters cautious in the beginning only to prepare them for a tough life ”to shine on the silver screen.” They are trying to make the debutants aware of the fact that in Tollywood it is not just glamour, glory and grandeur. It has a dark side also, and people who have gone through the grind know about it. Filmmaker YVS.chowdary, who has made this year first mega hit Devadasu and is preparing for his next venture says, “Everything that glitters is not gold. Behind the scenes are the toil, challenges, hardships and rigors. It is a laborer’s job and here, one has mental pressure equivalent to that of an executive in a corporate”. Chowdary said, “The advice I would give a newcomer is he should have done self-analysis and should be ready to go through what it takes. They should know that they are not here as starry-eyed people or for the glamour.” Puri Jaganath, the director of this year’s blockbuster “Pokiri” says, “It is more of a creative pressure. One is yet not sure whether the film will succeed or not.
The filmmakers live from project to project; they are as good as their last film. Their stocks keep changing in the market, coupled with the out lash of the media and the critics. Respect comes after a lot of toil and hard work. It is not as rosy as it looks.” ”Nowadays, I see that the youngsters who come in the industry are all graduates. They have an education to fall back, unlike the things that were in our times. The advice I would like to give is they should have an alternate plan to fall back upon, rather than put all eggs in one basket,” he suggested. Director Krishna Vamshi said, “For one of my movies we shot in minus-22 degrees Celsius temperature for 10 hours every day for a week in Europe . It is a lot of hard work. For a 0700 hrs shoot, the entire unit had to wake up at 0400 hrs. This is cent percent hard work. There are times when we work for 48 hours at a stretch.” “May be, only the actors get all the adulation. But even they work very hard. They sacrifice the time they could have spent with their children. Our shooting conditions are bad - hot and sticky, and despite such hardships, we are not sure whether the film will do well,” he said. “My advice to an entrant into Tollywood would be to come here only if he is prepared to work hard,” he added.
The young filmmaker S.S.Rajamouli, who tasted success recently with the Raviteja starred “Vikramarkudu” said, “Our work involves a lot of hard work. We work crazy hours. When an idea grips you, you work long hours in the night. “Our work mostly involves human resource. If people fall ill we can’t help it. We have to work extra to make it up. Though it might look easy, it is not. Out job is tougher than that of the corporate people. They can at least go home in the evening,” he said. He said his advice to the Tollywood entrants is that they should be prepared for hard work and hardships both, if they want to be a part of the glitzy industry. Shekar Kammula, the director of much acclaimed film of this session “Godavari’ said,” In this age of cutthroat competition everywhere, even filmmakers should know the pulse of the audience; otherwise the whole effort of a huge team involved in a film goes waste.
Here, success has nothing to do with talent. It is all about being at the right place at the right time. Thousands of people come to Tollywood but only one per cent makes it is a sad fact that extremely talented people work for a few projects and disappear.” Young director, who did not wish to be named and has spent a good amount of struggling years in the industry said, “You spend one day on the sets of shooting and you will see some truths.”
A young director, who has made some films and struggling to make a mark, on condition of anonymity said, “Tollywood is ruthless. People grab movies, cut each other’s throat and will go to any length to make their way in. It is a depressing scenario at times.”
That’s all about Tollywood.
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