Tollywood Talk: Hero Scarcity Is Real

Earlier, many used to say that Tollywood has a deficit of directors who could make big-canvas films like Rajamouli. Then they said the Telugu industry has a huge dearth of star heroines who are younger and also popular, after the likes of Kajal, Samantha and Tamanna took an exit. Guess what they are saying now? They are saying that there is a deficit of heroes.

The talk in the industry is that Tollywood currently lacks young heroes who are both popular and readily available for shooting. Acclaimed directors are waiting for years to get dates, but finally they are not finding them. The likes of Gopichand Malineni have waited for years to get a film, and finally he got Sunny Deol and then carved his next with senior star Balakrishna only, but not any other hero. Even Koratala Siva went the same route. Even for Trivikram, there are no heroes ready, and he has to go ahead with a senior star like Venkatesh only, that too after 2 years of waiting post Guntur Kaaram.

With almost all the star heroes busy with big films and occupied for many years, these star directors have to go for young heroes. But then, Tier 2 stars like Nani, Devarakonda, Sharwa, Polishetty, Nithin, Ram are not sure about doing commercial films immediately. Other youngsters like Abbavaram, Vishwaksen or others cannot pull hefty budgets all the time.

As all the tick boxes can be met, either star directors should wait for senior stars to be free, or other state stars to come aboard, or wait. That’s the situation right now.