Harish Shankar has said that the whole world is looking toward Telugu directors. As such, as per him, it is wrong to opine that a film like ‘2018’ (Malayalam) won’t be imagined by a Tollywood filmmaker.
Is the world really doing what Harish Shankar believes it is doing? The fact of the matter is that our directors are yet to prove themselves beyond the Telugu States. SS Rajamouli is an honourable exception. But wasn’t ‘Pushpa’ a big hit in Hindi? Yes, it was. But one swallow doesn’t make a summer.
Rajamouli and Sukumar are not the only Tollywood filmmakers who have to do the heavy lifting. Others like Harish Shankar have miles to go before other audiences can take them seriously.
Our directors have to come up with pathbreaking genre movies. Mass action films alone are our strength. Our directors liberally borrow ideas from Hollywood, Korean, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi films in making genre movies.