Tollywood stars' fascination with khaki uniform

With reigning star Prabhas set to play a cop in his upcoming film ‘Spirit’ with director Sandeep Vanga for the first time in his career, it looks like the Tollywood stars are fascinated with khaki uniforms these days. Young actor Ram Pothineni played a cop in ‘The Warrior’ and actor Gopichand plays a strict police officer in his next film ‘Bhimaa’. Similarly, after tasting massive success with ‘Gabbar Singh’, superstar Pawan Kalyan is essaying a cop role in ‘Ustaad Bhagat Singh’. New generation heroes like Adivi Sesh (Hit 2) and Viswak Sen (Hit 1) also minted gold at the box office by donning khakis.  

Now, another new generation hero Bellamkonda Srinivas is donning the role of an upright cop in his latest movie ‘Tyson Naidu’. “It is a cop drama but it will be more gripping and realistic, than other police stories. Although it is not inspired by real-life incidents, it will hold the audience's interest for its uniqueness. The hero will not be wearing a khaki dress since he belongs to a special force but digs out a major crime from nowhere. It will enhance the action image of Bellamkanda, while director Sagar has woven a captivating story,” says producer Ram Achanta, who also produced the cop story ‘Dhookudu’ with Mahesh Babu and tasted success. “Mahesh Babu had a larger-than-life image so we made a police story befitting his image besides providing loads of entertainment. No doubt, well-made cop stories always work wonders,” he adds

It seems so as superstars like Jr NTR (Temper), Ravi Teja (Krack and Waltair Veerayya),  Balakrishna (Rowdy Inspector), and Chiranjeevi (Prathibandh) rocked the box office in the past. “Superstars and cop stories are a perfect combination to score a hit, provided the plot is interesting and gripping,” says famed writer Gopimohan, and adds, “Every actor would be fascinated to play a cop since it is a pride to essay such roles. They are true real-life heroes who tackle real-life villains without any fear and we observe them every day with some respect,” he points out.

However, he claims that realistic cop stories like ‘Ankusam’ and cop stories with a commercial tinge like ‘Badshah’ and over-the-top “Yamudu’ also win audience appreciation. "It all depends on some novelty in the stories. Just recent success of the “HIT’ series showed that investigative cop dramas also pay off.  It could be inspired by real-life incidents or just fictional dramas, police stories have their audience and also fetch a few heroes in the so-called mass image. More young heroes would join the fray after turning 30 since too young could be a misfit at times,” Gopimohan concludes.