Telugu cinema-when the pages of Indian cinema unwraps probably there wouldn't be any film critic who can't ignore the movies made in Telugu given the amount of quality cinemas the industry has been giving. In fact, noted journalist and media studies' professor, Keval J Kumar in his book mentioned 'in terms of making films, no state is as prolific as Andhra.' The credit obviously goes to everyone in the cinema industry who have been giving chances to young talent both on screen and behind camera irrespective of caste, creed or whatsoever.
Today, it's no wonder that Telugu movies are even adopted by Hindi film makers. For instance, Kushi movie that came in the direction of Tamil director SJ Surya created waves in Tollywood that even Bollywood filmmakers adopted the same movie without even changing its name. When a director like SJ Surya, who hails from Tamil Nadu, approached power star, Pawan Kalyan probably didn't think why give a chance to someone from Tamil Nadu. He just listened to the script and liked it. This happens with almost everyone and when it comes to film fraternity, the intensity is more. We have megastar Chiranjeevi who gave new life to a junior artiste Raghava Lawrence in Hitler movie and even Akkineni Nagarjuna who gave direction debut opportunity to Raghava. If caste alone was important in Tollywood, why would people from different castes appear on big screen?
Also, if caste determines the top position, we have Nagarjuna, who's the son of Akkineni Nageshwara Rao yet he's enjoys the top position after Chiranjeevi who is from some other caste. Similarly we have sons of yesteryear actors who didn't make it to the top position in Tollywood.
In another case, A Karunakaran-the noted director-who gave a hit like Tholi Prema was completely new to film industry until 1998.. He approached Pawan Kalyan with the script. The hardships Karunakaran went through in becoming a film maker made him come out with a solid script like Tholiprema and Pawan Kalyan right away accepted it. Aren't these examples enough to prove that talent alone attracts film personalities and not caste feeling or caste politics otherwise Hollywood directors such as Spielberg wouldn't have realized who Prakash Raj is!
(AW Phani)
