Hindi villains take over Tollywood?
Filmmakers justify the heavy influx of Hindi actors as villains in Telugu cinema, even though they come with their own set of challenges.
Till sometime ago, Tollywood was importing only female leads. But now, they are importing villains too! Of late, actors like Ronit Roy, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Arbaaz Khan, Tarun Arora, Ashutosh Rana and Sushanth Singh among others are playing negative characters opposite Telugu lead actors.
“From the last few years, the Hindi market has gone high and that’s why those actors are preferred. Also, not many are keen to play negative or character roles in Telugu, which is why we roped in Arbaaz Khan for Kittu Vunnadu Jagratha,” says Anil Sunkara, producer of the film. “Everyone wants to become a lead actor and no one wants to play the villain,” adds Anil.
Though Telugu filmmakers are casting Hindi actors, it is the directors who face the brunt. A source says that it is very difficult for these actors to get into their roles. “The first two days of Ronit Roy’s shooting (for Jai Lava Kusa) took a lot of time as he couldn’t understand even a single scene. Lead actor Jr NTR had to ask the direction team to explain the scenes properly to Ronit Roy and then start shooting,” says the source. Several other Hindi actors are in a similar state. “Sometimes, they render numbers or say something else instead of the dialogues. The lead actor cannot express his emotions when these Hindi actors cannot speak anything,” adds the source.
So, does the influx of villains from the Hindi industry pose a threat to our artistes? “Not at all, we never face any competition from them. Filmmakers, who want someone who can say the dialogues with proper expressions, rope us in. People clap and whistle when we render our dialogues and it stays in their minds for a long time. This doesn’t happen with the Hindi actors,” says Rao Ramesh, one of the top characters artistes and villains of Tollywood.
He adds that for most of the Hindi actors, the voice is the same in many films. Interestingly, about 15-20 years ago, many Telugu actors played the villain. Stalwarts like R. Nageswara Rao, Rajanala, S.V. Ranga Rao, Naga Bhushanam, Rao Gopala Rao, Satyanarayana and even Mohan Babu played antagonists often and were popular for their dialogues. Later, actors like Kota Srinivasa Rao, Prakash Raj and now Rao Ramesh followed the older generation and got recognition for their dialogues and expressions. Even Jagapathi Babu, who turned villain, has some good performances to his credit.
And although many Hindi actors are starring as villains in Telugu films, they have been unable to earn a name like the Telugu stars, because they don’t have a command over the language, says a source.
But there’s another interesting buzz in Tollywood. “Many of the present day lead actors aren’t good performers and they prefer to act opposite these Hindi actors, to elevate their own act. If Telugu actors are roped in as villains, they may dominate them,” adds the source.
“We don’t have many Telugu actors playing negative roles. We need actors who can perform action scenes too, which is why we rope in Hindi actors. If the villain can deliver good dialogues, we definitely go for a Telugu actor. That’s how I introduced Jagapathi Babu as a villain in Legend,” explains director Boyapati Srinu.
He adds that in his upcoming film Jaya Janaki Nayaka, he has roped in mostly Telugu actors except for one character, played by Tarun Arora. He agrees that Hindi actors do not remain in public memory like the Telugu actors. “They don’t know our language and can’t render big dialogues, so definitely, Telugu actors should be preferred, but we don’t always have a choice,” he adds.