Is PR Becoming the Deciding Factor for Stardom in Tollywood?
A hero’s craze among the audience, movie success, box office collections and the number of people coming to theatres were seen as important signs of stardom.
For many years, Tollywood had a simple way of looking at a star hero. A hero’s craze among the audience, movie success, box office collections and the number of people coming to theatres were seen as important signs of stardom. But things appear to be changing now.
Today social media and public relations have become a major part of the film industry. A strong PR team can keep a hero constantly in the news create social media trends and make promotional content reach a large number of people. Because of this there is a discussion about whether PR is slowly becoming a deciding factor in Tollywood stardom.
Some heroes have very active PR teams. Their updates, fan activities, hashtags and promotional content are regularly pushed across social media platforms. When people see such content repeatedly, it can create an impression that the hero has huge craze and is one of the biggest stars in the industry.
At the same time, some stars do not appear to depend heavily on this kind of publicity. Jr NTR and Prabhas for example have established large fan bases through their films and performances. Their popularity has also grown across different regions and audiences.
However social media visibility and actual audience popularity are not always the same thing. A person who does not regularly follow cinema news may simply believe that the hero who appears most frequently on social media is the biggest star.
Actor Sundeep Kishan recently spoke about this issue in an interview. He said that only a few people are controlling the system and creating hype through PR games. He also pointed out that simply having work, big banners or collections is not enough to become a star.
According to Sundeep, an actor needs a unique identity and a genuine connection with the audience.
This raises an important question for Tollywood. Can PR create visibility or can it actually create stardom.
PR can certainly increase awareness and keep a celebrity in public discussion. But long-term stardom is usually connected with films, performances, audience acceptance and a sustained connection with fans.