Controversies bring publicity to Telugu films??

There is good publicity and there is bad publicity. But it seems that when it comes to films, there’s nothing “good” or “bad,” there’s only “publicity.” Going by this tenet, controversies seem to be the order of the day in Tollywood for publicising films. Be it Maryadaramannna, which some are saying has been plagiarised or Rakta Charitra, which has reportedly angered Pawan Kalyan fans for his head-tonsuring scene, almost every movie of late has been mired in pre-release controversy.



     
Tamil superstar Suriya’s movie Yamudu was also in the news when Prakash Raj complained to Tollywood bigwigs that it was released without his dubbing for the Telugu version. Rajini-kanth’s Robot courted the mother of all controversies when Sun Pictures, which bought the movie, accused Tollywood distributor Chadalavada Srinivasa Rao of falsely claiming to have bought the Telugu version of the film. The latest to jump the controversy bandwagon is Badmaash which has apparently irked Telangana sentiments over a sleazy song in the film.

Though everyone involved with these films stoutly deny courting controversy, it is definitely more than coincidence that a pre-release buzz surrounds these movies.

Call it pre-release publicity gimmicks or a desperate attempt to keep the buzz going, controversies are definitely good for the box office, a classic example being last year’s Magadheera. The makers were accused of plagiarism by several writers and a popular folk singer stormed TV channels protesting the misuse of his song which worked in the movie’s favour making it the biggest ever film in the industry in terms of collections.

“Before the release of Magadheera, its director Rajamouli told industry people that the publicity of the movie was going to be ‘out of the box.’ The movie released with a series of controversies and the industry believes that these helped a great deal towards its publicity,” says director N. Shankar who is making a movie now on the Telangana agitation, a controversial topic in itself.

Talking about the Robot controversy, Chadalavada Srinivasa Rao, says, “We sent Sun pictures a demand draft of Rs 2 crore as advance and they sent us an MoU of selling us the rights. They then suddenly backed out and accused us of not buying the rights and got two employees who mediated the talks arrested. They backed out to get a better price for the movie and for the publicity.”

“More than controversy, an alleged intimacy between the lead pair works wonders at the box office. Though there is a free publicity due to controversies, the movie should be worth the publicity to do well,” says director Jaya.