Tollywood in the grip of black magicians, evil spirits

 

With the recent horror thriller ‘Pindam’ also serving some ‘goosebump’ moments for the viewers with a girl child hanging in mid-air, chairs moving around and eerie devils threatening to kill more people. While the exorcist (Eswari Rao) chants a few mantras and uses magical thread to relieve a girl from evil spirits, which provide some chilling moments for the viewers. Earlier, spooky thrillers like ‘Masooda’, ‘Virupaksha,’ and "Maa Oori Polimera 2’ rocked the box office and all these movies together made more than Rs 100 crores in two Telugu states.

However, these movies were promoting primitive black magic and supernatural tricks. “Honestly, weren't promoting black magic since the audience is intelligent enough to understand that it is just a movie and nothing to do with real-life ," says leading producer Bogavalli Prasad, who minted more than Rs 50 crores with his film ‘Virupaksha.

 "Of course, our film revolved around black magicians and temple priests and also showcased the eerie moments created by the evil spirits. It was meant to be a gripping spooky thriller and the audience lapped it up since our taut screenplay retained the curiosity factor till the end," he adds.

Talking about curiosity factor, famed writer Gopimohan says, "Once the trailer of such films is unveiled, audiences are curious to know what is in store for them in the movie. With action and romantic films turning predictable, supernatural thrillers have taken centre-stage and spun box office magic."

He further adds, "Major chunk of revenue for these kinds of films is generated in single theatres based out in towns and villages, where some people still believe in black magic and talk about evil spirits. Besides, such films break the monotony of song and dance routine and clichéd comedy tracks, but just ride on the content and keeps the audience glued to their seats,"

He claims that the massive success of ‘Kantara’ which talked about invoking folklore gods to resolve people’s woes has inspired a few Telugu filmmakers. "Kantara' has truly inspired a few makers to travel this path and raise the bar on horror flicks. Invoking gods and spirits are going to happen for some more time since even digital platforms are lapping it up. They are dubbing in varied languages and making money since supernatural thrillers breach language and regional boundaries,’ he points out.

Gopimohan also claims that such themes don’t need big stars and can be made within specified budgets and best option for aspiring directors and producers "It is the perfect genre for young filmmakers to make their mark and then move on to regular films. With content being the king, directors can bank on novel themes and also showcase grip over filmmaking by scaring the shit out of the audience," he says and adds, "I am also working on a supernatural script after penning comedies since it is a new challenge for me," he concludes.

Giving an actor’s perspective, pretty actress Nandita Swetha, who is donning a ghost role in her next film ‘O Manchi Ghost’, says "Playing a ghost on screen is not an easy task. We go through lot of mental stress and body pain for all those screams and unusual antics and end up with sleepless nights," says actress Nandita Swetha, who also played a ghost in 'Ekkadiki Pothavu Chinnavada’.