Years with no successes a myth – hit rate of our stars
We often hear how our stars have survived a long ordeal of flops for ages and yet retained their fan bases or even better increased them over the years despite having no real success. The most popular one being Pawan Kalyan and his long streak of no success for almost a decade or Mahesh Babu with almost no success for half a decade and yet these stars are today in a enviable position at the box office and that’s a truth that can’t be ignored. But when we closely look at the films these stars have done you would realize that these lacks of hits for years is just a humbug. The reality is that these stars have done very less number of films over a stretch of such long period and these long periods coupled with their prime time have helped them sustain their stardom as simple as that.
Pawan Kalyan post Kushi saw a big success in the form of Jalsa (next only to Pokiri in its time). If one were to look in terms of years that would be seven years but if one were to look in terms of number of films that is a success after five films among which strictly speaking in terms of trade only one was disaster. Similarly Mahesh Babu has had no success after Pokiri and it took him five years to get a success with Dookudu (next only to Magadheera in its time) but again the reality is that Mahesh Babu tasted a success after just three films.
Now if success after three and five films is one side of the coin, success after five and ten years is another side of the coin. A narrative based on number of years for lack of success has been built as a myth to increase the aura around these stars like these guys haven’t got a success for so many years and yet increased their stardom, imagine what would happen if they get back to back success. And this narrative is lapped up by fans too who seems to think this is something to be proud off. In reality though no star and when we say no star we really mean it, could go about such long period without giving success and yet not get effected box office wise and see a decline in growth of fans.
In cricketing terms one would call it as hit rate (ala strike rate) and no star has gone hitless for almost a decade by doing films regularly. Even the star with poorest hit rate Nandamuri Balakrishna has delivered a hit after every six failures. It would explain why the range of his successive hits has been diminishing. The star with the best hit rate in Telugu cinema without any doubt is Mahesh Babu who has throughout his career given a hit after every two or three films. Unlike Mahesh Babu, Pawan Kalyan and Jr NTR have struggled to put together successive hits in short gaps post their seventh films respectively. How many of you agree with us on this ‘hit rate’ and think Mahesh Babu is the most consistent star? Post your comment and share us your thoughts.
