2010 Tollywood Roundup- Hits and Flops!

To start up, the Telugu Film Industry has almost witnessed 115 straight Telugu films (more than 150 including dubbed films) in 2010. However, it has hardly single digit hits, few average to above average films and many disasters. Most awaited films of the year sank at the Box-Office. The success percentage of films has dipped down drastically this year with a series of big flops and the reports says that Tollywood has approximately lost 200 Crores at the Box-Office. Here is our analysis, Take a look!

2010 Hit Flicks
To be frank, Tollywood has not had its range of hits this year. Bala Krishna’s Simha is the only straight noteworthy hit to be talked of. The Yuvaratna received the much needed hit at the right time in the form of ‘Simha’ after many long years. The fans were quite happy to see their star back in form and the film had good collections at Box-Office.
Jr.NTR too was flying high this year with two decent hits,Adhurs and Brindavanam. Prabhas and director Karunakaran came up with a typical youthful love story Darling that was liked by the audience. Director Rajamouli has earned yet another feather in his cap with Maryada Ramanna in 2010. Unlike his earlier films, Maryada Ramanna has no star heroes and not a mega budget too, but had a new plot and good screenplay.
Unfortunate Disasters:
The list of debacles, this year is too big. Industry had high expectations on these, but the biggies failed with these complete no-shows at the Box-Office. Nagarjuna starrer Kedi, Allu Arjun starrer Varudu, Dil Raju-Varun Sandesh starrer Maro Charitra, Siddharth starrer Bava, Mahesh starrer Khaleja, Ram Charan’s Orange failed badly and left tears for producers and distributors. Big names, high expectations, heavy budgets and much hype couldn’t save these films in making steady collections for the very first week too.
Low Budget Winners:
The big-budget failures have turned out as a blessing to medium budget and low budgets as the crowds showed their attention towards these films. Allari Naresh has created a niche for himself in the last couple of years. He is said to be one of the most bankable stars of all-time. His Betting Bangarraju, Katti Kanta Rao brought good profits at B-O. The Tamil remake, Bheemili Kabaddi Jattu turned out as unexpected success.
Critically-Acclaimed Films
Few films may not start up with great collections but they will indeed manage to gather much appreciation from the critics as well as the payingaudience. Deva Katta- Sharwanand’s Prasthanam, Sharwanand starrer Andhari Bhandhuvaya, multi-starrer flick Vedam are such films. Sekhar kammula made a good attempt with Leader which showed the dark reality of modern day politics.
Prasthanam and Andhari Bhandhuvaya might have done well if the producers have concentrated on more publicity.
Prasthanam was a political backdrop film with the shades of human emotions. The lust and greed for power will lead a man to any extremity is the concept behind the film. Sai Kumar has put in riveting performance beside Sharwanad.
Chandra Siddharth of ‘Aa Naluguru’ fame came up with yet another inspiring and heart touching film Andhari Banduvayya. This strong script speaks about the human values and morals that reached to many hearts
These critically praised films had decent run at B-O.
2010 Lucky Actors/ Average Scorers:
Apart from other star heroes, Manchu Manoj is one of the luckiest actors of 2010 who came up with three films. He received success with Bindaas and Jhummandi Nadam and Vedam turned out above average. Naga Chaitanya scored his first hit with Gautham Menon’s romantic entertainer Ye Maya Chesave. Comedian turned hero, Sunil received a good success by proving his mettle with Maryada Ramanna. Kajal Agarwal bagged two hits into her account this year with Darling and Brindavanam
Clicked Debutants
Amidst of many debutant ladies and many top heroines, Samantha needs a special mention this year. The gorgeous lady has become an overnight star with her debut flick and turned as heartthrob to many youngsters. Promising debutants Rana Daggubati, Richa Gangopadhyay and Priya Anand (Telugu) gave notable performances in Sekhar Kammula’s political drama Leader. Deeksha Seth, the former Miss India finalist, managed well with her performance in Vedam.
Dubbed Hits:
Dubbed flicks occupied a special place in 2010. Infact, the Telugu Film Industry faced heavy competition with Tamil dubbed films. It has been raining hits from Kollywood this year with Rajini Kanth’s Robo, Kamal’s Manmadha Banam, Karthi’s Awara, Suriya’s Yamudu etc.  Rajini Kanth, Shankar’s Magnum opus, Robo occupied tollywood’s throne this year, by collecting 47 crores at B-O. Looks like few roles are made only for Rajini, he just created magic on-screen as Robo. Robo has set a new benchmark for the special effects on the Indian screens.  On the other hand, Rakta Charitra-1 (dubbed version from Hindi) impressed audience.
Here is the list of the films released with high expectations in 2010

S.NO	Movie	Cast	Released        Month	Status
1	Adhurs	Jr.NTR, Sheela, Nayantara	January	Hit
2	Om Shanti	Kajal Agarwal, Navdeep, Nikhil, Bindu Madhavi, Aditi Sharma	January	Disaster
3	Namo Venkatesa	Venkatesh, Trisha	January	Average
4	Shambo Shiva Shambo	Ravi Teja, Siva Balaji, Allari Naresh, Priyamani	January	Below Average
5	Seetha Ramula Kalyanam	Nitin, Hansika	January	Below Average
6	Bindaas	Manchu Manoj, Sheena Shahabadi	February	Above Average
7	Kedi	Nagarjuna, Mamta Mohandas	February	Disaster
8	Leader	Daggubati Rana, Richa Gangopadhyay, Priya Anand	February	Above average
9	Kalavar King	Nikhil, Swetha Basu Prasad	February	Below Average
10	Ye Maya Chesave	Naga Chaitanya, Samantha	February	Above Average
11	Sadhyam	Jagapathi Babu, Priyamani, Keerti Chawla	March	Below Average
12	Taj Mahal	Sivaji, Shruti	March	Disaster
13	Yagam	Navdeep, Bhumika Chawla	March	Disaster
14	Maro Charitra	Varun Sandesh, Anitha	March	Disaster
15	Varudu	Allu Arjun, Bhanu Sree Mehra	March	Disaster
16	Betting Bangarraju	Allari Naresh, Nidhi	April	Above Average
17	Prasthanam	Sharwanad, Sai Kumar, Ruby Parihar	April	Average
18	Darling	Prabhas, Kajal Agarwal	April	Hit
19	Buridi	Aryan Rajesh, Aishwarya	April	Below Average
20	Simha	Bala Krishna, Nayantara, Sneha Ullal, Namitha	April	Super Hit
21	Andari Bhanduvayya	Sharwanand, Padma Priya	May	Average
22	Rama Rama Krishna Krishna	Ram, Priya Anand, Bindu Madhavi	May	Average
23	Young India	Dasari Narayan Rao, `	May	Disaster
24	Golimaar	Gopichand, Priyamani	May	Average
25	Vedam	Allu Arjun, Manchu Manoj, Deeksha Seth,Anushka	June	Above Average
26	Panchakshari	Anushka, Vijay Samrat	June	Below Average
27	Jhummandi Nadam	Manchu Manoj, Tapsee	July	Above Average
28	Bheemili Kabaddi Jattu	Nani, Saranya Mohan	July	Average
29	Snehagheetam	Sandeep Kishan,Venky,Chaitanya,Suhani,	July	Average
30	Subhapradam	Allari Naresh, Manjari	July	Below Average
31	Maryada Ramanna	Sunil, Saloni	July	Hit
32	Brahmalokam to Yamalokam Via Bhulokam	Rajendra Prasad, Sivaji, Kalyani	July	Below Average
33	Don Seenu	Ravi Teja, Shriya Saran, Anjana Sukhani	August	Average
34	Sye Aata	Charmi, Ajay	August	Disaster
35	Chapter6	Kalyani, Bala, Sonia Suri	August	Disaster
36	Happy Happyga	Varun Sandesh, Saranya Mohan, Vega	August	Below Average
37	Gaayam 2	Jagapathi Babu, Vimala Raman	September	Below Average
38	Takita Takita	Harsh Vardhan Rane, Haripriya, Vijay Samrat	September	Below Average
39	Komaram Puli	Pawan Kalyan, Nikeesh Patel	September	Disaster
40	Saradaga Kasepu	Allari Naresh, Madhurima, Srinivas Avasarala	September	Below Average
41	Khaleja	Mahesh Babu, Anushka	October	Below Average
42	Brindavanam	Jr.NTR, Kajal Agarwal, Samantha	October	Hit
43	Bava	Siddharth, Rajendra Prasad, Pranitha	October	Disaster
44	Kalyanram Katti	Kalyan Ram, Saranya Mohan, Sana Khan	November	Below Average
45	Yemaindi Ee Vela	Varun Sandesh, Nisha Agarwal	November	Average
46	Karma	Shesh Adavi, Jade Tailor	November	Below Average
47	Orange	Ram Charan Tej, Genelia, Shazahn Padamsee	November	Below Average
48	Alasyam Amrutham	Nikhil, Madalasa Sharma	December	Below Average
49	Katti Kanta Rao	Allari Naresh, Kamna Jethmalani	December	Above Average
50	Nagavalli	Venkatesh, Richa, Shraddha Das, Kamalinee Mukherjee, Anushka	December	Average
51	Ragada	Nagarjuna, Priyamani, Anushka	December	Above Average

2010 remained as a worst year that Tollywood has ever faced. The industry failed to set the cash registers ringing despite huge budget outings and top star casts. 2010 gave a harsh lesson to Tollywood film-makers that a film becomes success only if it has a strong content irrespective of the budget they pump in.
Well, let’s hope the industry analyses on what went wrong and bounces back with hits in 2011.