After a string of flops at box office, Telugu audiences crave good stories

Hyderabad: Tollywood has been seeing a string of back-to-back flops at the box office and this has once again proved that neither the budget nor the stars can save a movie if the script is bad. In the last four months, several much-awaited films hit the screens, and to our surprise, except 'RRR', they either bombed at the box office or were below average success. In fact, 'RRR' is the only big hit after 'Pushpa' and 'Akhanda' which released in December last year.

'Bangarraju' is the first big-budget release of the year. Starring Nagarjuna Akkineni and Naga Chaitanya Akkineni, the father-son duo, this film came as a disappointment. Fans were excited to see them together on the big screen but nothing could save this film from becoming a disaster at the box office. A sequel to 'Soggade Chinni Nayana', 'Bangarraju' could gross only Rs. 60 crore worldwide despite a lot of hype.

'Bheemla Nayak' was released in February and expectations for this action thriller, the Telugu remake of the Malayalam film 'Ayyappanum Koshiyum', were huge. Starring Pawan Kalyan and Rana Daggubati in the lead roles, the film was promoted for a long time and was postponed a number of times. 'Bheemla Nayak' did a business of Rs. 158.5 crore worldwide. The movie had garnered a craze due to Pawan Kalyan but it failed to impress the audiences.

'Radhe Shyam' ended up a disaster at the box office. The film starred Prabhas and Pooja Hegde. The story was so cliché that even the stunning visuals, visual effects, and good music couldn't save it. UV Creations was already suffering from losses following the release of 'Saaho' and now 'Radhe Shyam' has again led to huge losses.

'Khiladi' starring Ravi Teja was also another disaster at the box office this year. Released theatrically along with a dubbed Hindi version on 11 February, this movie – written and directed by Ramesh Varma – could gross Rs. 23.5 crore worldwide. The film's budget was estimated to be Rs. 40 crore.

Let us talk about 'Acharya' now. Fans of this film were waiting to watch Megastar Chiranjeevi and Ram Charan together onscreen. But for various reasons, the film did badly at the box office. This is the first flop for Koratala Siva.

A couple of days ago, Mahesh Babu's 'Sarkaru Vaari Paata' was released. Though the film is collecting well at the box office in the last two days, the fact is that the story is weak and so is the narration.

All the above films bombed at the box office because they failed to impress the audiences. Only a strong script can make a film successful. Besides these star-studded flicks, a lot of small-budget films also ended up being flops, thus proving that no matter how big the star or the director, nobody can save the film if the script is poor. Also, with a string of failures, it is high time that directors work on the script of the film instead of garnering hype with A-list actors.