The Age Of Heroes: The Incredible World of Telugu Cinema

Reddy surname can be confusing, because all Reddys are not ‘Reddy’, i.e., there are those with the surname don’t necessarily belong to the caste.

ANR built Annapoorna Studios; Ramoji Rao, whose news daily Eenadu became a mouthpiece for NTR, built the Ramoji Film City; Ramanaidu, the producer, built Ramanaidu Studios and was known for his close ties with NTR; Chiranjeevi with the help of his brother-in-law

Krishna Nagar in Hyderabad. It’s the casino of dreams and the graveyard of hope – almost every person you meet in Krishna Nagar is gambling away talent, time and bodies at tables that are clearly rigged in favour of the owners of the casino.

The reason I describe Okkadu in so much detail is because the film borrows liberally from Pathala Bhairavi.

It isn’t just any place in Kurnool. It’s opposite the iconic Konda Reddy Buruju or Konda Reddy Fort. The fort is named after its last ruler, who managed to escape through the secret tunnels known only to him and his family, after the nawabs had imprisoned him.

NTR, a year before launching his party, would use the part-history and part-folk mythos around the region of Bobbili. This region is touted to have produced fierce warriors who fought against colonial forces. Tales of the historic battle over the Bobbili Fort and the royal families of the region are retold much like the Rajputs and Maratha retellin

When Telugu audiences watch films, they don’t like the bitter taste of Heroes dying. Those sorts of tragedies aren’t why cinema goers love the medium. The villain can kill everybody and anybody around the Hero, the villain can torture the Hero in countless ways, but the fun is in knowing that the Hero will defeat the villain.

It is no coincidence that Krishna Deva Raya, the writer-poet, is also the region’s most remembered king.

Villains, too, were getting boring. NTR had defeated all the mythological villains; Krishna – Mahesh Babu’s father, popularly known as Superstar Krishna – had taken on the system as an angry young man; Shobhan Babu, another star who was popular among ladies, had defeated all the villains at the village level; while Chiranjeevi and the other younger