There were lots of good Telugu movies this year – Fidaa, Mahanubhavudu, Baahubali 2, Ninnu Kori, Mental Madhilo - however the one movie that stayed with me long after the end credits rolled was Arjun Reddy. Like most lists, my choices here are entirely personal and of course subjective but with commercial and critical reception aligning for most of the movies this year, I have a feeling my choices will reflect majority consensus! So, without further ado, here’s my take on the best of Telugu Cinema 2017. However, with people demanding more quality content and performances, my hope is that these issues will be ironed out as the industry gains more pan-India appeal. In fact, acting talent in general in the industry seems to have lots of gaps – negative characters (or villains as we love to call them) are often imported from other industries and native talent seems limited to a small pool. There are still a huge number of bad films that should not be getting bankrolled and a shortage of female acting talent that is disheartening. It is not all rainbows and butterflies though. The atmosphere and color palette used in the movie worked wonders to set the mood and the interval scene is one of the best I have seen this year. Starring Siddharth and Andreah Jeramaih in pivotal roles, the movie was a commendable effort in bringing the pure horror genre to the forefront in an industry where it is often diluted. Which brings me to one of the best horror movies I have seen in recent times – Gruham. The comedy was not funny, and the horror wasn’t scary. Despite having Nagarjuna and Samantha, the movie missed the mark on originality and the screenplay was haphazard and slow. Towards the end of the year we had Raju Gari Gadhi 2, a horror comedy, that just did not work for me. However, Vennela Kishore was the star of the show and elevated the movie with his dialogues and performance. Then there was Ami Tumi, a comedy starring Srinivasa Avasarala, Adivi Sesh and Vennela Kishore that had a promising cast and setup but was let down by a half-baked storyline and loud comedy style. However, the movie derailed shortly after and you can sense that while the idea was great, the execution was flawed. I was so engrossed in the movie and amazed at the shock value that director Teja was able to produce. The first 30-45 minutes of the movie was riveting. Another interesting release this year was Nene Raju Nene Mantri starring Kajal Aggarwal and Rana Daggubati. One has come to expect novel stories from Nani who is quickly becoming the industry’s golden child and Nenu Local rehashes several old stories without offering much new. We also had Nenu Local, a box office hit but one that left me underwhelmed. Another smash hit this year was Fidaa, a movie that respected its Telangana setting and steered away from stereotypes often associated with romantic movies. From a family entertainer like Sathamanam to Arjun Reddy that took the industry by storm with its bold approach, 2017 rewarded movies that dared to be different and respected the audience’s intelligence. ‘Spyder’ also stars Rakul Preet Singh as the female lead and SJ Surya playing the antagonist.The former went on to win the National Award for Best Popular Film providing Wholesome Entertainment. The film is being made under NVR Cinema LLP and Reliance Entertainment banners with Tagore Madhu as presenter.
‘Spyder’ is being directed by AR Murugadoss and produced by Tagore Madhu and NV Prasad. We are extremely confident that ‘Spyder’ will stand out as yet another super hit film for our banner.” We are very happy that we are releasing the film which is being made with high technical values in the combination of Mahesh Babu and AR Murugadoss, in Tamil. On this occasion, Lyca Productions creative head Raju Mahalingam said, “We know there are huge expectations on the film ‘Spyder’. Keeping the huge craze in mind, Lyca Productions has bought Tamil rights. There are huge expectations on ‘Spyder’ which is being made most prestegiously in the combination of Mahesh Babu and AR Murugadoss. ‘2.0’ in the combination Super Star Rajinikanth and Great Director Shankar with a huge budget of 400 crores. We all know that Lyca Productions is producing a sequel to ‘Robo’ i.e. Mahesh Babu and AR Murugadoss’s upcoming flick ‘Spyder’ which is being made simultaneously in Telugu and Tamil languages, is releasing worldwide on September 27 as Dasara treat.