Most of my exposure to Telugu films was thanks to the India’s national TV channel DoorDarshan. When I was a kid there was only the local TV station which was in Hyderabad and used to broadcast only a few hours everyday.
While the programming was mostly terrible, the good part used to be the movies they showed. There used to be a Hindi film and a Telugu film shown during the weekends, and they were mostly from the B&W era, and very rarely a few recent films.
The Telugu films they showed were the real revelation. Now, you might already know that globally the highest number of films were produced in the Telugu language - at the highest around 300+ films released every year. Yes there was a new film released practically every day.
I stayed in Hyderabad and Vijayawada, and both places had some crazy number of Cinemas. Hyderabad had around 200 cinemas and Vijayawada close to a hundred. and these cinema halls ranged from the deluxe air-conditioned halls to the ramshackle ones where you sat on benches or on the floor. My unforgettable experience was one where my elder brother (who was adventurous and tried everything) took me to a cinema hall in Vijayawada, mainly to show me that it used to be a railway station earlier. This was like a church hall with a large tiled roof. There were no ceiling fans, but enough doors with slatted windows, and there were a few benches (without back rests) and most people preferred sitting on the floor. I don't remember the movie, but the price was a few rupees which was ridiculously cheap nearly a fourth of what it costed in the other cinemas. We walked around the hall freely as my brother excitedly showed me the rail tracks and some other artifacts and signs that this used to be a rail station. Also remember this was Blazewada the nickname given by the british to Bezwada (Vijayawada). So this Cinema was unbearably hot and even with the doors open there was no relief. It was muggy and swelteringly hot.
But despite this the hall got filled to capacity and people came to watch the movie.
Telugu Cinemagoers are possibly the most film crazy folk (among Indians who love movies anyways). Those days you could be sure each film would be seen by the majority at least once, and remember there was at least one new Telugu film being released each day. This meant full houses - yes, even for the noon show. Don't ask me, but people thought it was perfectly serious business to go watch a movie during daytime/ midnight and take time out of their office/ shop/ daily routine.
So for a movie to be a hit, it had to be seen many many times. Yes, most folks saw it once but a good movie would soon get word of mouth and everyone would see it many many times. This applied for most of South India, but the Telugu cinegoers took it to a different level completely.
But the best part of this was how they were open to any kind of cinema (yes, this is the good ol’ days when there were popular heroes but no cine superstars, unlike today).
This open-ness meant that people were going to try any movie, So ALL kinds of cinema got their chance, and this was one movie market where there was an opportunity for not just new kinds of Cinema but also new talent to shine. I cant think of a fair market (of course all this changed, its no longer the same sadly).
Thus there were more ‘sleeper hits’ from the Telugu Cinema industry than any other languages. There were also a lot more unconventional looking actors who delivered hits - so there would be darker skinned actresses, or those who didn't meet the conventions of beauty who could turn to be established actresses.
As in, to be a super hit a good film need not necessarily have any heroes (established reputed actors) - it could have new unknown talents and still do pretty well, as long as it entertained and was good cinema.
One of the biggest hits those day was a film called Muthyalu Muggu (MM) which is perhaps the best example of what a good Telugu film (or even a south Indian film) would be like. In this case most of the actors were barely known.
I saw it on TV nearly a decade after it was released and couldn't recognize any of the actors or hadn't heard of them. They seemed to have been relegated to minor character roles.
But I loved the film.
Most of South Indian cinema offered films like a healthy rice plate or a Thaali - there would be various various different courses and items for you to sample and enjoy just like a good Indian meal.
And it was predictable. Each movie would have songs, a few comedy scenes, a few dramatic scenes, a few romantic scenes, some tense scenes, some melodramatic moments etc.
In the case of MM there was an additional layer which was that of fantasy. I’d seen this long ago but was fascinated to see the children interacting with Lord Hanuman (the super monkey God who helps Lord Ram conquer Lanka and defeat Ravan).
MM incidentally was based on Ramayan (I got this only after reading the Wikipedia entry). The movie had a convoluted fit with the storyline Ramayan.
Now there were many many (and when we say many in Telugu Cinema, it means a few ‘00s) movies made on mythology, including the Ramayana, and many of them were hits.
But what made MM a superhit were the different unique elements that stood out in the movie. Both the Hero and Heroine didn't particularly stand out (at least for me) as much as the rest of the movie. The villain and his daughter were better established and well known than the main actors.
What mattered was how unique each supporting element of the thaali/ rice plate were created. Thus in the case of MM the villain was just outstanding. This vicious man was the wealthy land owner class and would be respected by the villagers. Any dissenting voice would be put to death promptly, and if I remember it right - he would signal who had to be hit, by asking a band of trumpeters (shahnai) to play, whenever he got irritated by someone. this meant that the person talking to the landowner would be the next hit. This was played in a few scenes and was quite a stand out performance.
Similarly his daughter gets duped into marriage in a similar fashion to what the villain had done to the Hero, and that was something creative and not seen earlier in other movies. Similarly the element of fantasy using Lord Hanuman stood out.
When I saw MM I already had seen around close to 200 Telugu films, but MM stood out for me, as it had done for the Telugu cine goers, and perhaps that is what made it such a huge success. It won a couple of national film awards.
But for me it remains the best example of Telugu Cinema, and how it used to be one of the most perfect free markets, that allowsed talent and good stories to win
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