In the last five years or so, a newer lot of younger directors have emerged in Telugu cinema. They seem to have a lot of exposure to world cinema (and not merely Hollywood), and other languages classics. It is all excellent, and their attempts are appreciated. But, they also have developed a needless resentment to the local commercial Telugu film. They somehow feel it as inferior.
When the new age directors score a couple of success, the inherent disdain for the commercial cinema is coming out. It is slowly spilling on to the stars, as well, that, they are not backing them by collaborating.
These new-age directors are up to date with the collections and trade of their films. At least that is how they sound, which also a better aspect. But they are missing a key detail or fail to read finer points. A movie of a star operates at a much larger scale. They would not come down to their low (or medium) budget levels, not so when they make one film a year. It impacts their market.
Also, what these new-age directors manage to work commercially at small scale is hardly ever successful when expanding. A change in sensibilities makes them lose what made them unique in the first place. A star would therefore not risk his commercial standing (or image) for doing something that could not guarantee the very same thing he took the risk for.
We have many examples in Bollywood where the niche directors failed spectacularly when given a chance to go big with popular stars. Even the successful ones hardly ever made handsome profits. At least, they have a market in Bollywood for such films which is not the case in Telugu.
The bottom line here is if these young directors have the ambition of working with the stars, the onus in on them to find a way to balance their ‘story’ needs and market-driven star demands. Or else slowly increase ‘their market’ as a director with young stars willing to stick to their vision. Both can co-exist together without one looking down the other or one trying to take the higher ground.
