How the Telugu fantasy genre birthed a new brand of heroes, outperformed superstars

It was clear that the success of a film is not dependent on only the star of the film anymore. Producers are now willing to bet on films if it has something extraordinary to offer, and not necessarily a big star. Fantasy has suddenly become the go-to genre as it ticks off all the boxes of ‘larger-than-life’ films. Karthik Varma Dandu, the director of Virupaksha, a dark fantasy film, claims that the whole trend was kick-started by SS Rajamouli. “After HanuMan, and to be honest, even after Baahubali and RRR, producers are willing to spend on CGI. The whole market has changed because of these films. If you take Virupaksha, it has collected Rs 100 crores. It was possible because the pathway was laid down by these forerunners. So, I think directors like me should be grateful to Rajamouli garu,” he says.

Producers were earlier hesitant to spend on CGI as it was considered unnecessary for a film’s success. Yet, one common factor among all the successful fantasy films was, if not great, decent visual effects that convinced the audience a lot of effort had been put into the film. The makers of Virupaksha spent Rs 2.5 crore back in 2019, which itself was a big amount for a small-sized film. “It was during the corona period and because it was a new company I was able to pull it off with the amount or else it would have easily cost Rs 5 crore,” Karthik reveals.

Telugu actor Nikhil Siddhartha, whose Karthikeya film series belongs to the genre, adds that CGI has also made things easy for filmmakers and in some cases reduced the budget of the projects. “If you take Karthikeya 2, it wasn’t made with a high budget but we were able to make the film look costly because of the CGI. It was made on a decent budget with great planning to make it look like a big-budget film. So, this is what I want to do — building fictional worlds. With Suyambhu (his upcoming fantasy film) it is going to be set in an ancient mythical world about a warrior. Firefly is doing the graphics for the film, which involves sequences which have not been attempted before.”

Not just producers even star technicians are open to joining hands with the young heroes for such projects. Cinematographer KK Senthil Kumar, who has worked with SS Rajamouli in Mahadheera, Eega, Baahubali films and RRR, has come on board for Suyambu. Nikhil says, “No one knows about it yet, but yes I am excited that he has agreed to come on board. Everyone wants to be part of such ambitious projects right now. Also, he loved the story.”

It is said that Nikhil’s upcoming film Suyambu will be made on a budget of Rs 60 crore, the sort of amount that’s usually reserved for the stars of the industry. While Nikhil has been around in the industry as a hero since 2007, his biggest break happened with Karthikeya in 2014.

Hanu-Man director Prashanth Varma makes an interesting observation about the fantasy genre and why it is possible to mount a big-budget film with a relatively young hero. “While making a fantasy film, on top of the hero, there is the presence of the supernatural element which adds to the star power of the film. For example, in HanuMan, apart from the hero, you have a god, who is bigger than the hero himself. This pulls in a lot of the audience. Even before the film was released, I knew there would be a new set of audience to my film than the ones that came for my Zombie Reddy,” he opines. 

“It is true that the genre itself has become a star in Telugu cinema. Many producers have approached me to take the universe forward, and I can say there will be more such films shortly. But the intention should not be about making money. We started Hanu-Man to make a cool superhero film. Had we thought of making Rs 300 crore, we wouldn’t have made even three,” he adds. 

Karthik also echoes Prashanth’s view that having a conviction to make a good movie supersedes everything else. He claims that’s the reason young stars are able to pull this genre better than the superstars. “With big stars there are certain things that need to be done in the story. They would want the film to fit in a template. Even if the producer is not demanding it, the fanbase would want the star to be presented in a certain way. Hence, young heroes are chosen for such script-driven films. But now, after the success of many such films, even stars are willing to try it out. Even Chiranjeevi Sir is doing it with Viswambara.”

Apart from Suymabu, Viswambara, Karthikeya 3, and Jai Hanuman, Kannappa and Mirai are other such films currently in the pipeline. “People always thought fantasy films were not commercial cinema. That notion was broken by films like Karthikeya and Ekkadiki Pothavu Chinnavada. People were wondering whether it would work, but it made more money than the commercial films that came out back then. What is commercial cinema? At the end of the day, anything that makes money is commercial cinema,” Nikhil signs off. 

However, there is a concern with the sudden surge in the number of fantasy films, according to Karthik. He is worried about there is a high chance of the genre fizzling out. “After Virupakasha, I pitched an idea in the fantasy genre to a producer and I was asked to develop it, which took me eight months. By the time I was done with the script, there were six to seven projects in the same zone. I was like ‘What’s happening!’ Not just in cinema, but in any field, if something works, everyone starts to imitate it. Everything has a saturation point, but if we want to sustain this trend, new ideas in the genre should be explored. Why should everything be about mythology? We should try something like a futuristic film. That’s the way to go about it. With everyone ready to spend on new ideas, it doesn’t mean only good films will be made. Even bad ones will come up. It should be made sure that they don’t push the producer away.”