Seasoned star Venkatesh is back with a bang with his latest blockbuster ‘Sankranthiki Vasthunam’ and has retained his good charm and comic timing. ‘He is looking handsome despite his age and energetic on the big screen. Venkatesh has retained his family audience and others to score another blockbuster this Sankranthi,” says Lagadapati Sridhar, who hails Venkatesh for exploring dark humor. “Despite his stature, he has realized the audience's changing tastes and attempted dark humor which is only explored in Bollywood and Kollywood, and succeeded. His routine sex talk in the film, allowing his son to mouth cuss words, and blaming OTTs for influencing kids and sharing about his first love with his family are bolder, yet make it a new-age entertainer,” he points out.
He claims that family audiences and kids are thronging theatres in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and the comic caper has struck a chord with Telugu audiences this festival. The film was reportedly traded for Rs 35 crores in two Telugu states. "The wholesome entertainer will garner more than Rs 80 crores share and Rs 150 crore gross in Telugu states and is going to give huge profits for buyers which is quite rare these days,” he adds. Director Anil Ravipudi recycled old movies of Venkatesh and relied on slapstick humor. “At the beginning itself, the director introduced key characters like jailers, and gangsters along with the chief minister as mere caricatures and we shouldn’t go deep into logic. Caricatures break all rules to leave the audience in splits. Comic capers even in Hollywood skip logic for magic. Anil Ravipudi is inspired by great comedy makers like Jandhyala and EVV Satyanarayana who tickled the laughing bones of the audience for many decades. Sometimes, recycling old ideas for new audiences also works. I produced a film called ‘Evadi Gola Vadidi’ with director EVV Satyanarayana which was a logicless laugh-riot but it is being remembered even now,” he adds.
He claims that Venkatesh deserves a pat for regaining his flair for comedy and retaining his stardom amid action heroes like Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna. "Venkatesh carved his path and his last comedy flick ‘F2’ made more than Rs 100 crores. He is the only big star to bank on his comic timing and funny expressions to mint gold at the box office. He also makes fun of himself, which others seldom do,” he concludes.
