2015 has been a record year for Tollywood

Year 2015 has created history in the Telugu Film Industry. Nearly 175 films released this year among which a couple were all-time blockbusters — S.S. Rajamouli’s Baahubali and Mahesh Babu’s Srimanthudu.

Baahubali, made on a budget of Rs 150 crore and collected more than Rs 500 crore worldwide —  it even opened to a few thousand screens in China and Europe!

And then came Srimanthudu. While Baahubali was a multi-starrer and released in several languages, Srimanthudu managed to smash records on Mahesh Babu’s star power alone. The film also proved that a Telugu project was capable to hitting the elite Rs 200-crore club. It was the second-highest Telugu grosser after Baahubali and Mahesh Babu once again declared that he was the master of the overseas market.

Besides these two films, the surprise hit of the year was Bhale Bhale Mogadivoy. Made with a budget of only around Rs 9 crore, the film collected over Rs 25 crore, a win for all small-budget films. The film was also among the top 10 grossers of Telugu films overseas and surpassed many big films like Race Gurram, 1 Nenokkadine and Baadshah.

The year also opened positively with the multi-starrer Gopala Gopala starring Venkatesh and Pawan Kalyan. The film did quite well but they were all overshadowed by Baahubali.

We now come to excellent debuts made by actors. A performance that has been particularly hailed this year has been Varun Tej’s role in Kanche. The movie went on to become a box office hit.

Jr NTR and Kalyan Ram, the two Nandamuri brothers, also tasted success this year. Jr NTR was in dire need of a hit but managed it finally with Temper, while his brother Kalyan Ram too got a break with Pataas after 10 years!

Another big star, Allu Arjun, was happy with his S/o Satyamurthy. While male actors dominated 2015, as usual, the only actress who made her mark was Anushka —despite mixed reviews.

Her Rudhramadevi was declared a hit while Size Zero went on to disappoint at what was a very busy and successful Tollywood box office.

Keep an eye on Raj Tharun!

Raj Tharun entered the industry as just an assistant director and then went on to play lead in a small project,   Uyyala Jumpala, which managed massive revenues. The actor’s performance was lauded by everyone and his next film, Cinema Choopista Mava, made with less than Rs 5 crore, collected nearly Rs 15 crore at the BO. Now, his third flick Kumari 21F, produced by Sukumar, is a hit too and he’s currently commanding A-list pay.

What worked for Tharun are the different subjects he has opted for and for that wisdom alone, he’s our pick!

Anushka, and her career expanded!

Anushka, easily the current No. 1 actress in Tollywood, put on a whopping 17 kilos for her role in this year’s Size Zero. K. Raghavendra Rao’s son, K.S. Prakash, directed the film which, despite that “healthy” buzz early on, turned out to be a dud. And Anushka is left with a problem —  how to lose those extra pounds ahead of Baahubali 2 and Singham 3. All the best!

That vulgar thigh joke!

Comedian Ali is in the habit of making people laugh. But a joke aimed at Anushka’s thighs went a bit too far — the world was angry! Ali apologised though, but also went on to threaten those who mocked with a lawsuit!

They’ll ‘never’ work together again.

Director Srinu Vaitla and writer Kona Venkat have parted ways, again. After Baadshah, there were differences between the two and both had decided not to work with each other in future. But Ram Charan brought them back together for Bruce Lee — that flopped too!

A furious Kona Venkat fired off the first salvo, blaming the director for not sticking to the storyline he had provided and went on record to say the partnership was over! But troubles for Vaitla didn’t stop there. The director had a tough time on the personal front too with wife Rupa filing a complaint against him at the Banjara Hills police station, claiming he had been harassing and manhandling her. She also moved in with her parents. But the couple later patched up following an intervention from a few industry elders.

Allu Arjun managed to save an entire project

Director and producer Gunasekhar was able to release Rudhramadevi all thanks to Allu Arjun. Gunasekhar had put everything into the film (including his own money) and had worked on it for three years, but there remained a doubt that the film might not see light of day. And the budget kept on increasing month after month as the interests piled up.

Also, no one was showing any interest in doing the key role of Gona Ganna Reddy in the film. It was then that Allu Arjun came forward offering to do the role — for free. And once the film released, Allu Arjun emerged as the highlight and thanks to his cameo, the film collected good revenues and Gunasekhar was saved from what could’ve been big trouble.

The debut that was a disaster

The biggest disappointment of the year was Nagarjuna’s younger son Akhil Akkineni’s debut film Akhil, directed by V.V. Vinayak. No star kid’s launch had had as much hype in Tollywood as Akhil’s. Mahesh Babu even attended the audio launch of the film and called Akhil a “future superstar”. There was some controversy surrounding the film too as Nagarjuna postponed the film from Dasara to Diwali — he wasn’t happy with the special effects. With expectations high, the film was the year’s biggest disappointment and buyers did not even recover 20 per cent of their money invested. The film was made with a budget of more than Rs 40 crore.

Chiru’s 150th film

Chiranjeevi was in the news throughout the year — for his 150th film. There was also some controversy around the film. Ram Charan initially announced that his father’s 150th film would be directed by Puri Jagannadh but Chiranjeevi later announced that he didn’t like the second half of the script.

Amidst all this, Chiranjeevi acted in son Ram Charan’s Bruce Lee, leading many to believe this was the landmark role.

That Puri-Charmme split!

Director Puri Jagannadh’s “links” with Charmme was in the news throughout the year. However, the year-end brought the news that they have parted ways.

The director had made Charmme a partner in his production house and she was looking after the production of Jyothi Lakshmi, in which she played the lead, and later the recently released Loafer that stars Varun Tej and Disha Pathani. There were also rumours that the actress was controlling the director and that irked many close to Puri. The duo attended many film events together but always denied they were in a relationship. Then recently came news that Puri had decided to part ways with Charmme. It is even claimed he asked her to vacate his office and never return.

This town’s loudest whispers

This top producer’s elder son’s marital status has been a big talking point. He got married to a girl from Vijayawada in 2005 and they now have a daughter. According to a source close to the producer, from the past two months there have been differences between the couple and both have decided to go for a separation. The producer is very big in the industry and a top actor is his other son, so they are keeping the issue a big secret. The wife has even unfriended the husband on Facebook!

This actress has been very lucky!

A top actress, popular in both Telugu and Tamil, recently arrived at a film event in a spanking new BMW. When we checked about the new car, a source revealed that the star was being “looked after” by a top writer from Telugu cinema and that he had apparently gifted this car to her. The actress has also worked with him in two of his films and the writer is a frequent guest at her place. Earlier, she didn’t even have a manager to look after her dates — but the writer took interest and hired a manager for her!

Those secret lunch meetings

A positive outcome in 2015 was actors deciding to come together and ensure better communication among themselves. Allu Arjun took the initiative along with Rana Daggubati and invited the young brigade of actors for a series of secret lunches. Rana hosted the first lunch followed by Allu Arjun and most of the rising actors attended and interacted with the seniors.

The stars also discussed their films’ release dates clashing and decided to avoid box office clashes as much as possible and also to promote each other’s films on social media.

A bad year for Brahmanandam

Brahmanandam, the highest paid comedian in Tollywood, could not elicit many laughs in 2015. The actor’s comedy routines in most films were just that, routine. There was not a single film or a character of Brahmi that was memorable this year. Interestingly, he completed 1,000 films as an actor this year in a career spanning nearly 27 years, a world record.

Prudhvi replaces Brahmi

While talking about the lows of Brahmanandam, one must mention the highs of comedian Prudhvi in 2015. The actor will most probably dethrone Brahmanandam as comedy king of Tollywood in the years to come. Prudhvi dominated the year and has become a hot favourite for filmmakers.

This totally creeped us out!

While Baahubali emerged this year’s biggest hit, one scene in particular was just strange. So Tamannaah is by a lake and this is when Prabhas decides it’s perfectly fine to intrude into someone’s personal space to draw art on her arm. That’s just rude and in most cases, not legal! It’s high time we stopped these silly moves in the name of romance!