In the recent past if one can think of movies that got good critical acclaim then the names that immediately come to our mind are Pelli Choopulu and Premam. These two films were praised by everyone, almost on the same level, yet there seems to be a difference between them in the territory that matters, the US.
Premam with similar rating and a better opening is struggling to match Pelli Choopulu in the US. Both can be seen as films that aim predominantly overseas audience, still only one really managed to connect at a personal level. So why didn’t Premam go Pellichoopulu way? What went wrong with it?
We think the reason is simple, Premam lacks the feel of Pellichoopulu or that of its original from Malayalam. Sure, it was a love story and had some really good music and background score but they were taken as it from the original. They had no real big impact in Telugu as the film itself was average at best. The trashing Premam received prior to its release made a section be lenient when it comes to the Telugu version. But the collections have a different tale to tell. It is similar to Ram’s Nenu Sailaja in that regard.
In the two Telugu states, the run of the film is slightly better as the holidays have benefited it. One has to wait and see how things shape up post the holidays to understand the actual reality. Irrespective of how it turns out Premam is going to be the biggest solo success of Naga Chaitanya. It could have been much bigger, is what we want to point out.
