It's part deux in Tollywood

When the audience loves a film and makes it a hit, they pave the way for its sequel. Pushpa: The Rule, Salaar, Devara and HIT 3 are some of the highly anticipated franchise films. Salaar and Devara are being made in two parts.

Koratala Siva who is presently directing Devara, announced that the action drama will be made in two parts. He says, “The entire unit felt the story was something that cannot be told in one part, and we can’t do injustice to the story by wrapping up in one part. As the shooting progressed, the world in which the film was set up started getting bigger and bigger — because of the new world, huge canvas, and many strong characters in the film. After a couple of schedules, the ‘high’ we felt was much more than the excitement we had before the shooting,” says the director.

He also explains that to further establish the drama, emotions and explore the depth in every character, more time is needed. Hence a part 2 of the film. “When we pitched the idea to Jr NTR garu, he too was excited and immediately endorsed it. So it was a collective decision to do the film in two parts,” Siva comments.

Cushion for longer narrative

Prabhas’ upcoming film Salaar too will be released in two instalments. Allu Arjun’s Pushpa and Nani’-starrer HIT 3 are also franchise based. While the first two are character-based franchises, the third one is plot based film. However, not all films can be franchised-based. The film should have the scope for the protagonist’s character extension as well as the story.

Sailesh Kolanu director of HIT franchise says that certain stories need longer time and bigger canvas to narrate. He, however, states that the filmmakers can have the edge for a franchise film — that they need not introduce and establish the lead character from scratch.

“Since the audience already knows the character it gives us the scope to tell a much larger story. We can straightaway jump into the conflict of the story,” says Sailesh, adding that Nani was also game to continue the HIT franchise. “As a producer too, Nani knew that the audience is rooting for the character, so it makes it all the more exciting for actors.”

When heroes were apprehensive

Earlier Tollywood stars never considered the idea of a franchise. Partly because south never had the culture of second installments, and even the select few films that had sequels failed at the box office. “But things have changed after Baahubali franchise; all stars have noted that franchise films from the south can be sold and marketed,” comments screenwriter Sainath Thotapalli stating that all stars got the confidence and joined the bandwagon.

According to him, title is a powerful tool in the trade for a franchise series. Since the first instalment is a hit, and the audience (and the trade) knew about the film, the director and the actor, marketing became easier, says Sainath. “Also, the continued successes of films (like Baahubali, F3, Karthikeya 2, HIT 2, Drishyam 2, Bangarraju, KGF 2) have given our stars the impetus for franchise-based films.”

Moreover, writing a new story is always challenging compared to developing an already established story and a character. In Bollywood we have had this franchise culture for a long time and our stars are now doing it. Heroes believe that instead of telling one story for over three and half hours, it is ideal to narrate the story in two parts.

“Trade wise, the franchise is a hot cake because of its earlier success. Moreover, the producer need not search for a director or an actor; they can continue the earlier collaboration,” Sainath shares, adding that distributors and buyers too feel secure about the investment.

Earlier Tollywood stars never considered the idea of a franchise. Partly because south never had the culture of second installments, and even the select few films that had sequels failed at the box office. “But things have changed after Baahubali franchise; all stars have noted that franchise films from the south can be sold and marketed,” comments screenwriter Sainath Thotapalli