No doubt, seasoned directors are struggling at the box office these days. Srinu Vaitla, known for blockbusters like ‘Dhookudu’ and ‘Badshah’, failed to set the box office on fire with his latest offering ‘Viswam’ and it looks like some seasoned directors are out of sync with new-age audiences. “It is a fact that young audiences are unwilling to spend money on senior directors and a few of them have delivered inferior movies too,” says producer C Kalyan and adds, “New age viewers' tastes are changing and they are demanding some novelty. If some directors recycle their old ideas, audiences have no time to waste. On the other hand, the audience who patronized these directors in the past aren’t turning up in theatres now, as they could have turned 40 or 45 years old,” he reasons.
It seems to be true as directors like Gunasekhar (Shakuntalam), Krishna Vamsi (Rangamarthanda), Puri Jagannadh (Double iSmart), RGV (Vyooham), and V V Vinayak (Chatrapathi) are some who failed to impress new age viewers with their cliched stories and dreary screenplay. “Tollywood has suffered more flops than hits and almost 70% of movies crash at the box office every year. However, some young directors keep cash registers ringing by dishing out varied movies. Nag Ashwin (Kalki 2898 AD), Chandoo Mondeti (Karthikeya 2), Vashishta (Bimbisara), Prashanth Varma(HanuMan), Mallik Ram (Tillu Square), Karthik Varma Dandu(Virupaksha), Venu Yeldandi(Balagam) and Srikanth Odela (Dasara) revived the fortunes of sinking Telugu cinema. “Unfortunately, even young directors need big stars to showcase their talent. Until Telugu audiences start patronizing thematic and non-star movies like in Malayalam and Tamil industries, Telugu movies will be in a mess,” he informs.
Rubbishing the generational gap argument, director Neelakanta cites the examples of Martin Scorsese and Yash Chopra who delivered hits even after crossing 60 years of age. “Honestly, age has nothing to do with a director delivering a hit film or flop. It is just that the particular content didn’t click with the viewers and nothing more to it. People have this tendency to bring in age and other factors like generational gap, but it is just a myth since world over filmmakers have dished out blockbusters even at 60 and 70’s so this argument doesn’t hold water,” he concludes.
Another leading distributor on condition of anonymity says, “OTT content is a true threat to senior directors who are fixated with certain stories and are unwilling to wriggle out of it. Few directors still believe that formulaic movies work and blend songs and comedy into the story to call it commercial movies and fall badly. If a senior director has to prove his mettle, make a film that he hasn’t done before, and find a connection with new viewers and bounce back into the reckoning, otherwise, it would be difficult,’ he informs.