Some young Telugu filmmakers are undoubtedly breaking new ground these days, dishing out anthology films, a rather rare Tollywood phenomenon. The recent past has seen a number of movies in this format.
New or not, it is certainly not an easy job to etch an interesting screenplay with multiple stories running alongside. Even so, a few directors succeeded in making such films with parallel stories and multiple characters and pocketed national awards too.
The latest to join the bandwagon is ‘Prema Vimanam’ featuring kids Devansh and Anirudh Nama, which hit theatres today. “It is a heartwarming tale of two kids who dream of boarding a flight, while another one is a love story of youngsters,” says producer Abhishek Nama, who is attempting the genre for the first time. “It is quite challenging to narrate multiple stories in one film but they have blended very well for us,” he adds.
The best thing about these films is they offer a lot of content than any other regular commercial movie and that is the reason why they are loved more. “This is an interesting genre giving a filmmaker creative freedom to explore multiple themes in a single film unlike a single-plot driven movie which is predictable,” says young director Venkatesh Maha, who scored a big hit with ‘C/o Kancherapalem’ and adds, “Now, I am very happy that more anthology movies are being made in Telugu and I wish more stars support this genre,” he adds.
Other films in this genre are ‘Gamanam’. ‘Awe, ‘Samanthakamani’, 'Manamantha,' 'Prema Ishq Kaadal', while Praveen Sattaru bagged a national award for Best Telugu Feature Film in Telugu for ‘Chandamama Kathalu’ among 15-odd movies.
Going a step forward, Prashanth Varma bagged two national awards for his film “Awe’ besides loads of critical acclaim. “No doubt, it was a proud moment to bag two national honors and I would cherish it forever. Surely, some Telugu movies are raising the bar,” says Prashanth, who broke the genre-specific format with ‘Awe’ to set a new path.
“Usually, anthology movies are different stories in a single genre, but I broke the norm by combining stories of five different genres which culminate at one point, a game changer of sorts,” he points out.
However, Prashanth Varma believes that anthology movies will take more time to find their rightful space in Tollywood ala Bollywood or Hollywood since the marketability factor is a big hindrance in T-town. “Unlike easy saleability of hero-driven Telugu movies, other genres have no such ready-made buyers,” he says and adds, “Although, anthology movies are the best recipe for newcomers to show their talent within a budget and also for established directors, who can try it once or twice in their career, but definitely not for middle-range directors.
I think if more big stars show an inclination towards this genre, then it would be a good time, because connecting the dots of four or five stories in a movie is a big challenge in itself over a single-plot movie where the goal of the protagonist is fixed and his subsequent accomplishment could be easily guessed by the audience, unlike in anthology movies,” concludes Prashanth.
