Star shortage
T’wood is facing a strange crisis. There’s no new pretty face...
In the past half a decade, the Tollywood industry has not had a single new glamourous face. But ignoring that lack of new talent, the prolific industry continued with names like Kajal Agarwal, Ileana, Taapsee and Tamanna.
But then, this year, almost all of them made the big jump to Bollywood. There’s not a heroine left in Tollywood, and with a few of them even choosing B’town projects over requests from the South, it’s nothing short of a talent drought.
While some keep hope, that there will be new names, other directors admit that it’s a worrying situation. “I found it difficult to find two heroines for my film with Allu Arjun. But I don’t blame the ones who left. Bollywood is a bigger stage when compared to Tollywood. And I only wish them good luck. Luckily, after a lot of browsing, I found Amala Paul and Catherine… guess the show must go on,” said producer and director Puri Jagannath.
But feeling a bit more heat than Puri is colleague Bandla Ganesh of Teen Maar and Gabbar Singh fame. “We are able to get the dates of the hero, director and other technicians, but no heroine to start the film. We need to tackle this shortage, otherwise, the number of productions will drop,” he said.
Ganesh also explained the problem in detail. “All these actresses are doing both Telugu and Hindi films and could be accessible for some more time. If they settle down in Bollywood, then the list of A-list actresses will be reduced considerably as we can’t cast debutantes opposite big stars.”
So, is Tollywood looking at a bleak future when it comes to its leading ladies? “I don’t feel that Tollywood will have no big names in future. It will just take some time, but we will get the names. Meanwhile, we have Nayantara and Anushka and hopefully, they will soon take over,” said director Krish of Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum, Vedam and Gamyam fame.
Producer B.V.S.N. Prasad also Krish’s opinion. “Audience make them stars. Tamanna and Kajal are like Sridevi and Jayaprada of yesteryears. Nobody can replace them in the industry. Even Ileana is good. In South, Nayantara and Anushka are slowly making themselves prominent. There are also many new names coming up like Kriti Kharbanda (of Ongole Gitta fame). She is also good at her work. So, I have some hope.”
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