No sportsmanship in Tollywood?
Telugu actors not showing up at award ceremonies to cheer for their winning colleagues has put the industry to shame.
A recently-concluded film awards ceremony has left everyone talking about how actors lack sportsman spirit. Though the awards committee announced a few nominations for the best and the supporting actor, only the winners made it to the event. Most of the other actors who featured in the nomination list failed to turn up to cheer for the winners. Unlike Hollywood or Bollywood, where actors attend the award ceremony to encourage their colleagues, Telugu film industry’s actors don’t seem to be bothered with niceties.
“Telugu stars have a huge fan following. So most of the leading actors do not attend award functions when they don’t get an award as they feel their fans won’t like it,” says director Teja. He adds that actors in Hollywood and B’wood, however, never do films just for their fans. “Because of these fans, some actors feel that if they attend award functions just to appreciate others, their image could get affected — that’s the reason they don’t turn up. Actors in other industries are never put under such pressure,” says Teja.
Sadly, it’s not just senior actors, even younger actors do not attend award ceremonies. Though the young crop of actors bond with each other through WhatsApp groups and “lunch meetings” with the aim of supporting each other, it is limited to promoting trailers and teasers on social media. Their attitude towards award functions remains the same as their seniors. “I think Telugu and Tamil actors have lot of ego issues. Let’s hope their mindset will change in the coming two to three years,” says producer Madhura Sridhar. “Earlier, our top actors would never perform on stage, but last year, that changed. Even anchoring was done by small time actors, but now big stars too have taken to that. So, I feel that there is a big change in their attitude that is happening,” he adds.
An authority who organises the South Indian film awards event says that an invite is sent to everyone in the industry. “We personally call all the top actors for our events and provide everything they ask for. The actors’ first question to us is ‘who is getting the award’ and after hearing the name, in case it isn’t them, they always come up with the answer that they are busy shooting and might not be free to attend the show. We get these answers every year and with our good contacts in the industry, we manage to rope in at least a few of them for the event,” says the organiser.“Hindi and Hollywood actors feel that awards are prestigious, but it is not the same for Telugu actors,” says Kona Venkat, popular writer.
“I feel that the awards committee should not reveal the names of the best categories before the event. Maintaining secrecy would help a lot. If they go ahead with live coverage, I think everyone will attend the show. Also, the Telugu awards functions are so long-winded that many of the actors are tired. As it is being recorded, the organisers prolong it as much as possible, leaving the actors disinterested,” he adds.
The organisers should also come up with interesting events and not just try to promote their sponsors. “In a recent awards function, the organisers invited Jagapathi Babu to the event. The actor’s team told them that he would be there, though he would reach late. So, with the idea that the actor would attend the event, the organisers declared him as the winner. But, the actor didn’t turn up. I think Jagapathi Babu knew that if he straight away informed the organisers that he was not coming, they would declare another actor as the winner. So, he kept them waiting,” says a source.Such tricks may not work at all award events as awardees not turning up might diminish the sheen of the event.