`RRR': Unfazed Babu Gogineni hits back at trolls for `paid' good film reviews

Hyderabad: Some journalists and random social media users have called out human rights activist Gogineni Rajaji Ramanadha Babu popularly known as Babu Gogineni for his critical review of RRR.

Roudram Ranam Rudiram (RRR) is a Telugu movie directed by S S Rajamouli and stars Ram Charan Tej, Jr NTR, Alia Bhatt amongst others. The movie was released worldwide on March 25.

He called the movie 'Intense but not gripping'. However, people swooped down on him questioning his qualifications for reviewing the film.

In conversation with NewsMeter, he asked: "I believe no one needs any qualification to have an opinion on the film. But I do have a background in film appreciation. Why should anyone be disturbed by my opinion?" He questioned back what qualifications the journalists have to question his movie review.

Not taking it lying down, Gogineni hit back at trolls and called some of the good reviews `paid and plagiarized'. He called out the unfair ways movies reviewing in the Telugu film Industry. "The language used by several reviewers to review a certain film is common to those reviews, and the language used by several journalists or social media commentators to attack my reviews is also common to each other. In fact I ran a plagiarism check and in one case it came out 50 percent plagiarized. So where are these reviews and attacks originating? Who is sponsoring them? Telugu film reviews across various media organizations are either plagiarized or are paid to give good reviews by that particular film team," he said

"In this process, journalists themselves have become trolls. I wonder how much publicity budget is used by filmmakers to entertain journalists," he told NewsMeter. He said that any movie with big movie stars and directors never gets a bad review from most journalists.

"Cinema is Art. Art is Political but reviewing movies should not be made political," said Gogineni.

He said that multiple reviewers (journalists) act as a PR for certain films. "Most are paid to write good film reviews and then attack anyone who is being a tad bit cynical. The art of appreciating cinema is lost in this process," he said.

Gogineni challenged the prevailing culture of reviewing cinemas either with a casteist lens or with a political objective if not for monetary purposes.

In his short review, Goginenu said women have no real value in RRR. "This is the case for several other Telugu films. The biggest flaw in Telugu films is that the stories are extremely hero-centric," he said.

He said that the movie lacked humor and logic. He also questioned whether the two halves of the film were directed by the same director. "The Indian Censor Board has failed to censor RRR properly. The blood, gore, and violence are not meant for children," he explained.

Gogineni said that movie reviews 'can be and should be done differently'. He stressed the importance of the art of appreciating cinema across all age groups.

Gogineni has also previously been attacked for giving cynical reviews to Radhe Shyam and other movies. Speaking to NewsMeter, he said: "I was not cynical, I was rubbishing the movie and its intent. Imagine spreading superstition, inserting fake proofs in a story to promote superstition, and using the names of scientists to do so. Remember the Constitution of India asks us all to promote Scientific Temper as our Fundamental Duty in Article 51 A". He criticized Radhe Shyam for how the movie tried to establish palmistry or astrology as a science "The movie runs on blind beliefs and WhatsApp forwards," he said.

"It is obvious that many anchors on TV and writers on social media and websites are the real trolls. They give a cue to the viewers and the readers to attack. I will make them accountable," he said.