With the much-hyped movie ‘Game Changer’ biting the dust, it looks like Tamil directors are unable to deliver hits in Tollywood. Interestingly, Tamil director Shankar’s Tamil movies from ‘Gentleman’ to ‘Robo’ were dubbed into Telugu and rocked the box office, while his debut Telugu film ‘Game Changer’ failed to connect with Telugu viewers. “Tamil directors have to understand that the sensibilities of Telugu and Tamil audiences are quite different. Also, they have to rope in Telugu writers to guide them about Tollywood audience tastes and accordingly, design the screenplay. Tamil audiences like a sustained ‘serious mood’ in a film, while Telugu audiences prefer entertainment in between. Besides, highs and lows in a hero’s character arc have to be nicely balanced for the Telugu audience and also they have to watch previous hits of Telugu stars, before working with them,” says famed writer-producer Kona Venkat and adds, “Ram Charan’s ‘appana’ role in ‘Game Changer’ had some depth and purpose, but it had limited screen time. Coming to hero elevation, Telugu audiences love to watch Pawan Kalyan in a certain way, while Tamil directors may overlook it. Tamil directors have strong command over their ‘native themes’ but when they move into an alien territory, they are a bit clueless,” he adds
Tamil directors like P Vasu, K S Ravikumar, Murugadoss, Lingusamy, Vikram Kumar, Gautam Menon, and Mohan Raj are top-ranking directors in Kollywood with numerous hits under their belt but they have put up a dismal show in Tollywood. "Telugu stars like to work with Tamil directors impressed with their Tamil movies. Telugu stars would believe that a working Tamil director would expand his market in Tamil Nadu but nothing of the sort is happening. Surely, Tamil directors are missing the plot and magic," concludes Kona Venkat.
