Jr NTR made his debut in 2001 and the actor would complete thirteen years in the industry in another six month. He had his first major success in the same year with Student No. 1, which also marked the debut of SS Rajamouli. In the year 2002, Jr NTR had the biggest turning point in his career Aadi, which made him a star while also simultaneously marking the debut of VV Vinayak. In the very next year in 2003, he stunned the trade with Simhadri, one of the biggest hits of its time that turned Jr NTR into a mass phenomenon. Now we are in 2013, a decade later, Jr NTR is seen struggling to match his Simhadri performance. So what has happened in this decade that is stopping Jr NTR from giving a Simhadri or why is Jr NTR failing and other such questions have its answers right in those successful years. Let’s look at them closely.
Now let’s get back to the early 2000’s, it was the time faction movies were ruling the roost at the box office. Mass movies were the dominating genre at the box office. Enter Jr NTR with Aadi and Simhadri, he provided the best films among the then existing trend. Nandamuri fans along with the common audience lapped them up and result was an unexpected phenomenal rise of an actor in stardom in a matter of just two years. What Jr NTR was at the start of 2001 was not the same at the end of 2003, he was a mass phenomenon. And this is where the entire problem started that is still continuing.
The faction genre and mass movies become passé as time went by. But the actor kept dishing out such fares which didn’t work out at the box office. While some of those were really bad, others (like Samba for example) couldn’t meet the high standards the actor had set for himself with Aadi and Simhadri. It didn’t help that the actor kept ignoring his looks which hit rock bottom with Rakhi. So it can be clearly said that the choice of films coupled with looks were initially responsible for the underperformance for his films.
So what the actor needs right now are director’s who could package him freshly in those mass films itself like SS Rajamouli did in Yamadonga. The director created a fresh setting to exploit the mass mannerism of Jr NTR that made him a star in the first place. Jr NTR in order to be with the flow is doing some films that even his fans don’t like and in the process is failing himself. He is wrongly under the impression that he will alienate a section if he makes mass movies. But alienate he will, if he does the crass masala movie no matter when he does them. In short the actor must do films that fall into the Dhammu genre (which excites fans) and have freshness like the first half of Ramayya Vastavayya (that will attract regular audience) throughout within the Dhammu setup. What do you think of our assessment and which director do you think can provide that proper mixture?
