An RRRetrospective: Looking Back on Telugu Cinema

By Nandini Likki (Vassar), Sophia Bueno (NYU), and Caleb Kim (NYU)

drawn by Sophia Bueno

The 2022 Telugu film RRR (Rise, Roar, Revolt), directed by the renowned S.S. Rajamouli, made history at the 2023 Oscars by winning the award for Best Original Song for its song “Naatu Naatu” and becoming the first Indian production to ever win an Oscar. RRR had massive commercial success as well. It was one of the most expensive Indian films ever made, costing $70 million—a worthy investment, as it became the fourth highest-grossing Indian film of all time and the most-watched Indian film on Netflix of all time, with 45 million streams globally.

However, not many had heard of Telugu cinema before RRR’s success in the West. Not to be confused with Bollywood, which is based in Mumbai and is made in Hindi, Telugu cinema, also known as Tollywood, is based in the Film Nagar neighborhood in Hyderabad, Telangana, and is made in the Telugu language. The industry started in 1912 with the silent movie Bhishma Pratigna (The Oath of Bhishma) and grew from there, with its first major commercial success being Lava Kusha in 1934. September 15 is known as Telugu Film Day, as the first audible movie Bhakta Prahlada was released on that day in 1931. Telugu is native to the Indian states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and has 96 million speakers worldwide.

RRR, set in the 1920s British-occupied India, centers around two men, Komaram Bheem and Alluri Sitarama Raju, who are based on two real historical Indian revolutionaries. The former is a tribal man from the forest-dwelling Gond community while the latter is a police officer with the British army who seems to have no issues inflicting violence on his fellow countrymen. They fall into an unexpected partnership as they rescue Malli, an Indian girl who has been kidnapped and is being held captive in the British governor’s residence. Like many of Rajamouli’s works, the film is action-packed and contains many spectacularly choreographed scenes of the two protagonists taking down their British foes, but it is also heavily politically charged: due to its nature, it is a criticism of British imperialism and celebration of Indian culture.

But let’s go back to Telugu cinema’s roots. The first Telugu film that included audible dialogue, Bhakta Prahlada (Prahlada, The Devotee), was released in 1932 and details a story from Hindu mythology, but has now been lost. According to David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson’s book Film History: An Introduction: “Out of the approximately 2,500 Indian sound films made before 1945, few lacked song sequences. After World War II, music became even more important. Radio disseminated movie songs, advertising forthcoming releases. With the breakup of the studios, independent producers clamored for successful songwriters and lyricists, who were often as well paid as the biggest stars. A composer might write for several dozen films in a single year. Early on, Indian film scores borrowed Western symphonic motifs and orchestration, but it took the Hindi formula film to create the “hybrid score” (367).

After India gained independence from Britain in 1947, its regional film industries began to flourish. The 1950s and 1960s are often considered the ‘golden age’ of Telugu cinema. Stars like Savitri, N.T Rama Rao, and Akkineni Nageswara Rao established themselves with the movies Missamma, Gundamma Katha (Gundamma’s Story), and the 1957 epic Mayabazar (Market of Illusions), which was the first Telugu film to be digitally remastered and colorized and is widely considered one of the greatest Indian films of all time. Telugu folklore, mythology, and fantasy films put their roots in the industry during this period. 

A still of famed actress Savitri as Sasirekha from the 1957 film Mayabazar (image courtesy of Bhiranavey Thevan)

In the ‘70s and ‘80s, Telugu cinema witnessed the continuation of N.T Rama Rao’s stardom, while also giving way to the rise of stars like Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, and Kamal Haasan. The films during this period focused more on action and drama, to reflect the shifting political attitudes at the time and capture the blight of the ‘angry young man.’ Directors like Ram Gopal Varma captured this shift with films like Shiva. Parallel cinema directors like K. Viswanath and Balu Mahendra also used themes of dance, music, and the performing arts to depict and address social issues. Films like Sankarabharanam (The Jewel of Sankara), Sagara Sangamam (Confluence with the Ocean), and Swathi Muthyam (White Pearl) draw on previous traditions of using Telugu art and mythology to convey powerful social and political messages about caste, sexism, and disability. Swathi Muthyam even went on to be India’s official entry to the 59th Oscars in 1986, and to date, is the only Telugu film to be sent.

A poster for the 1986 film Swathi Muthyam. A love story between a widow and an autistic man, the movie was the first and only Telugu film to be sent as India’s official entry to the Oscars (image courtesy of Poornodaya Movie Creations).

It was under this context that S.S Rajamouli began to make his films. Born in 1973 to a family of film professionals, Rajamouli established himself within the Telugu film industry with socio-political action and fantasy films, such as Sye (Challenge), Vikramarkudu, Yamadonga (Grand Thief), and Magadheera (the two latter films would be made with future RRR stars NTR Jr. and Ram Charan, respectively). It wasn’t until the two-part series Baahubali: The Beginning and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion that Rajamouli would demonstrate his prowess on the national global stage, as both films went on to be the highest-grossing Indian films of all time. Bordwell and Thompson write, “Indian blockbusters followed tactics of their Hollywood counterparts. As budgets inflated and big films were scheduled for holiday periods, a single week could account for over half of a release’s revenues. Films relied on product placement and merchandising. Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) was advertised a year in advance, with making-of videos on the Internet, teases on social media, and publicity in fan conventions all over India. The sequel was even more heavily marketed” (616-617).

Where does the industry stand today? RRR is not the only recent success in the Telugu cinema industry. Films like Baahubali: The Beginning, Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, Arjun Reddy, KGF, and Fidaa (Spellbound) have brought in huge revenues for the industry not only in India but internationally as well. These films have shown the potential TFI has to expand its stories to the universal level. Then a question arises: Why hasn't Telugu cinema achieved the same level of recognition as East Asian cinema?  

There are several factors to consider. One of the main factors is simply a lack of support from the Indian government to export and market movies. The language barriers are harder to overcome as there is little to no budget for subtitles or dubbing the movies. Also, without marketing the movies or releasing the movies in major global theaters it is simply harder for people on a global scale to encounter Telugu films. However, RRR had a bigger budget compared to other Telugu films, and a big portion of it was spent on export and global marketing. For example, RRR’s trailers were released in many different languages, the film was dubbed and subtitled in several languages, and its marketing team partnered with companies such as McDonald’s to promote the film. In other words, RRR was able to overcome the external factors and challenges that Telugu films face. 

Furthermore, there are internal challenges that Telugu cinema has to overcome. Films continue to perpetuate harmful sexist and racist stereotypes. YouTuber Mohak Mangal and his research team addressed this in a video titled “What’s Wrong with Telugu Movies?” Mangal discusses how often women are sexually objectified and the normalization of stalking and harassment as appropriate behaviors for men in love. Sandeep Reddy Vanga, the director of the hit film Arjun Reddy, shut down some of the criticism of the sexism and misogyny within his movie in an interview with Film Companion: “If you don’t have the liberty of slapping each other, then I don’t see anything there. So, I feel [that] these women who are talking about this, I feel that they were never in love.” Additionally, there simply is less screen time for female characters on screen, and most of the screen time women get are scenes of them being sexualized or being treated wrongfully by male characters. However, there are exceptions in Telugu cinema, such as the success of the female-centric films Arundhati and Mahanati (The Great Actress), that show us a ray of hope. 

A still from the 2017 film Arjun Reddy. While the movie was celebrated for its unflinching look at sex and relationships, the film was also heavily criticized for its treatment of Preeti, the main female character. (The image courtesy of Bollywood Hungama).

It is obvious that these problems are not only present in Telugu cinema but within the film industry as a whole, which still struggles to portray complex and nuanced female characters. However, if the number of exceptions increases and the external factors are dealt with, undoubtedly Telugu cinema will continue its upward trajectory and show its talents on an international stage.

References

Thompson, Kristen, and David Bordwell. Film History: An Introduction. 4th ed., McGraw-Hill Education, 2019.