Dear Visitors

It's been a long time [almost an year] since an editorial was written. Guess, it is high time that we did something about this. Allow me to take this opportunity to address few issues in this editorial.

A site can be reproduced. An image can be replicated. But what can't be replicated is the community and loyal set of visitors any site has gathered over period of time. We at idlebrain.com give importance to the same, by choice and as first preference. So what did we do in the past year in this direction…. introduced newly formatted discussion boards, chat facility and other interactive modules. But, we observe that the some of our visitors are interested in discussing silly issues like casteism, which is certainly not our intent. What we urge you is to look beyond trivial matters and rise to the occasion of promoting meaningful and sensible interactions. We are always there to take criticism, infact we love it as it is our only inspiration to improve.

The good news, however, is that we have reached to a community large enough, that servicing them has increased our responsibilities to uphold values and not just provide information. We realize that and understand that we have moved on to a new plane of growth. At this crucial juncture, am sure that you will support our initiative with your participation and constructive feedback.

Banning idlebrain.com seems to be the fad. Recently Wipro Technologies, Hyderabad has banned idlebrain.com as most of its employees are wasting their time browsing idlebrain.com. Likewise a few of Hyderabad-based software companies have also banned idlebrain.com through their proxies to make sure that the employee productivity is not affected.

We, at idlebrain.com, treat it as a compliment and encouragement to our work. Did we remind you of Mr. Xander in the latest movie XXX? We surely are bald, but this is a time, when our values and purpose come to the fore. While our intent was to communicate and provide a platform for meaningful exchange of opinions/information about Telugu Film Industry, we certainly do not want that to happen at the cost of your job and career.

We started the campaign of Kill piracy (in USA) long time back when pirated DVDs were being sold through inappropriate channels. We were upset that the same was happening as if it is their birthright. But it took some time for the industry to realize the seriousness of piracy in USA. In a bid to promote genuine Original DVDs and fight piracy, we have endorsed moviexpress.com as our official DVD seller. We make sure that each and every DVD sold at moviexpress.com is original by calling up the respective producer in India and confirming to whom they sold the DVD rights.

Each season has a flavor and we only serve the visitors with the best of the flavors in any seasons. Why am I saying this? Because many people ridiculed, criticized, accused, branded us for taking sides with heroes and producers for promoting movies. Did I get my point across? OK, allow me to explain.

When Narasimha Naidu was released, lots of people ridiculed idlebrain.com that we are biased towards Balayya. When Kushi was released, idlebrain.com is branded as Pawan Kalyan's site. When Nuvvu Naaku Nachav, was released people accused us of giving undue coverage to Nuvvu Naaku Nachav film. When Aadi was released, people laughed at us why we were giving so much of hype to Jr. NTR. When Indra was released, people thought that the producer paid kickbacks to idlebrain.com to promote the film.

So to summarize, yes we are biased towards Balayya, Pawan Kalyan, Venkatesh, Jr. NTR, Nagarjuna, Chiranjeevi, Brahmanandam, Lawrence, Ram & Lakshman, [tom, dick and harry included] and all those who give you the best of entertainment. So are we biased? It is your turn to answer.

So did we make money, check our bank accounts and you will realize that the passion we have is - certainly not money. Our intent is to reflect the tastes of common moviegoer. Idlebrain.com aspires and is a universal site that has bias towards good films and commercial hits. If we have communicated at any point in time, that our intent is making money, then you have understood us wrong, and our apologies for any miscommunication in this regard.

But then, there was an opinion that our rating is not appropriate. Did we deny that? No. When I started this site, I started giving idlebrain.com rating for the movies. That was a mistake and I admit it. Realizing the same, I changed it as Jeevi review, so that, it is understood as a rating by one individual with an opinion and individual taste. While it is only a rating by an individual, we have never stated that a high rating does guarantee a commercial success and low rating would ensure a box office turkey.

It has been almost three years since I started writing reviews and I covered most [maybe all, I have lost count…] of the Telugu films released in this span. So what went wrong in my rating…in the beginning [Long Long Ago], I used to give more emphasis on the hard work put up by the moviemakers and technicians in bringing us a film. I was little generous in the beginning. But over a period of time, with self-inspection and sincere feedback from our esteemed visitors - I became more stringent in ratings. My basis for reviewing a movie shifted from the moviemaker's aspect to a moviegoer's perspective. From then on we uncovered our defects and changed a lot our practices. It was an important milestone in our journey. Our intent of the rating is only to encourage someone (from another visitor point of view) to watch the movie.

We always believe that it is the visitor to whom we are answerable. Now the problem is that it is a catch 22 situation for us at all times. Why? On one end, we need help from producer in terms of movie coverage and photographs while on the other, we criticize the same producer when he delivers a bad movie by writing movie reviews. But the best part is that most of the producers appreciate our frankness and encourage us with their uninundated support. When we write a review, we think from the visitor point of view - but not from the producer's point of view. So can we come up with a good rating mechanism for the entire movie, from all perspectives… sure. Though it is not impossible, it is time consuming. The point we are making is that, we still understand that this is not a perfect solution and are open to suggestions on this.

All this is fine, so what did we do to get the best of the news at all times. We started lots of on-field programs like press meets, dates with movie shootings etc. We have also started a new section called 'Utopia', where we feature the noble deeds done by fans of Telugu cinema in general and Telugu heroes in particular.

Am sure that looks like a lot of work done in one year. We sweat and toil, day in day out, just with one passion and one vision - you should get the best out of the Telugu Cinema. Thank you for supporting us all along, and trust that you will be with us during the next stages of growth as well.

To sign off, we are remembered of Sir Winston Churchill's words - "The price we pay for greatness is called responsibility". Also, with inspiration from Ralph Waldo Emerson, we realize the same cannot be achieved without enthusiasm, from us and from you. Let's together take this to a new plane of success.

Adios Amigos….
Jeevi
jeevi@idlebrain.com
4th October 2002