Pan India Virus: Telugu Heroes In 'Slow Motion'
And the rest of the heroes are also looking forward to a year from now for the release, while they have already taken more than a year after starting those projects.;
Right now in Tollywood, the Pan-India scale is slowing everything down. The question is… how much is too much? There was a time when Telugu stars delivered 2 films a year. Now, one film is taking 2–3 years in the name of a bigger vision, bigger budgets, heavy VFX, and global reach. All are valid reasons for sure. But the catch is, this gap is getting dangerous.
Look at the hero board right now. Prabhas has Fauzi, Spirit, Salaar 2, plus more in discussion, but no one knows how many years each film will take to release. On average, one film is coming out every two years of time. Chiranjeevi is juggling to get Vishwambhara released, while Bobby’s film is yet to take off. Pawan Kalyan has Surender Reddy’s film and OG sequel, but no one knows when they will start. Balakrishna is working with Gopichand Malineni, but the film hasn’t taken off yet. Venkatesh has a multi-starrer lined up with Trivikram and Anil Ravipudi, but the budget is said to have overshot and one of these films might get delayed.
Ram Charan with Peddi, followed by Sukumar’s movie, but Peddi itself has taken 2 years already. Jr NTR has #NTRNeel set for next year, while no one knows when his next would start. Allu Arjun is deep into Raaka, next with Lokesh Kanagaraj and Basil Joseph, and these three will take away a good 5 years.
That’s not all. Mahesh Babu is locked into SSMB29 with Rajamouli, which itself is a multi-year commitment, with no clarity of when the project will wrap, though many release dates will be promised. Nani has The Paradise and Bloody Romeo, while the first one is already delayed. Vijay Deverakonda is lining up Ranabaali and Rowdy Janardhana, which have wrapped only 20% so far, taking two years from his previous release. Ram Pothineni is working on The Lone Wolf, but there’s no clarity.
And the rest of the heroes are also looking forward to a year from now for the release, while they have already taken more than a year after starting those projects. This is not just about stars taking time. The entire system has slowed down. Directors are taking longer to write scripts and to shoot. VFX timelines are expanding. Scheduling is becoming a nightmare. Star power needs visibility, but not just scale. When one film takes 3 years, the connection weakens. That’s why the theatrical market is dying.
Simply put, we are slowly training the audience to stop waiting and move towards OTTs and other platforms. With Telugu heroes in “slow motion” due to the pan-India virus, surely this is bound to happen.