A Gen-Next hero in Tollywood

Even as Bollywood watchers are keenly await Saawariya, which will launch Raj Kapoor’s grandson, as the hero, a new Gen-Next hero has just been born south of Vindhyas.After a small skill show in Daddy where he proved his dancing skills, superstar Chiranjeevi’s son Ram Charan Teja has made his debut with Chirutha, three weeks ago.

The movie had a wide release with around 350 prints including Andhra Pradesh as well as scores of overseas markets. His name alone of course does is not familiar, yet, millions of hearts welcomed him to Tollywood. Yet, being Telugu mega star Chiranjeevi’s son is enough. Expectations were sky high as there is no more truism in South cinema than “In filmdom, it pays which family you are born into”.Produced by Aswini Dutt’s Vyjayanthi Movies, Chirutha comes from one of the most established banners in the Telugu film industry. Dutt’s past record includes big films with both Chiranjeevi and his younger brother, Pawan Kalyan.

The young scion also had the advantage of having his debut film directed by Puri Jagannath, an established commercial director, whose films kept Tollywood’s box office ringing. For Ram Charan Teja there could not have asked for a better launch pad. Money too was not a constraint as Dutt is said to have pumped anywhere between Rs 15-18 crore for the movie’s production, with a sizable portion of its being spent extensively in overseas locales, especially in and around Bangkok. The hype surrounding the launch of a new star duly helped the film and it was sold for an estimated Rs 25 crore. Crazy fans of Chiranjeevi as well as others rushed to the theatres in droves across the state. As a result, it collected almost Rs 12 crore in the first week itself.

Yet, the film has not proved to have staying power. From the second week on, the film’s collections started sliding. Director Jagannath seems to have got carried away by the hype of launching a new star, and has not focused on the key areas of a film — the story and screenplay.

Fortunately for Ram Charan Teja, its the film which has got all the criticisms while he has landed up with accolades for performance, action scenes and even his dancing skills! All in line with his father’s image. So, yet another Gen -Next star, in the lines of Mahesh Babu (son of Krishna) is born.