Telugu cinema viewers today are polarized between two lines of thought, when they think about Telugu movies. One line goes, "Telugu movies are great entertainers, and we have fun watching them!!" And the other goes "There is no quality in our movies, and they can never go international". Well, I tend to agree with the first line, of thought and do enjoy the movies as they are. As most Telugu film goers I enjoy the entertaining stories, the excellent comedy and the beautiful dances that are dished out in some of the Telugu movies. Most importantly I enjoy the teluguness, if I may use the word of these movies above all.

Coming back to the point of this article, why should we go international? One answer would be that by doing so we create more business and more money. I tend to agree with this answer also. But considering that one movie of the Megastar Chiranjeevi has made 20 Cr Indian Rupees in 14 days (roughly 4.4 M dollars), proves a point that we are self sufficient both in demand and supply. The money is enough to keep making more movies and the viewers are enough to sustain the industry. So I guess then that is not a motivating factor to make our movies international.

Then there is the question of pride. When was the last time a Telugu movie was watched all over the world and appreciated in a couple of international forums? As far as I can remember we had some art movies appreciated in the intellectual film circles of the world which only those intellectuals could understand, very long back. Contrary to the common misnomer in India that people from other countries generally are intellectuals, there are a lot of normal people out there who would like to watch a movie purely for their entertainment value. There is nothing intellectual about "Austin Powers" or for that matter "Lord of the Rings" or "Star Wars" that is intellectual. So, then what are we then looking at? If we make our entertaining Telugu (not all though!!) movies in English (for the reach English has, not to misunderstood as a love for the language) then most international markets will accept them? I guess the simple answer is no.

But then the answers (read movie attempts) that we are seeing being internationalized are also not creating a great international presence right? I don't see the depressing (read horror and thrillers) created by Ram Gopal Varma's Factory i.e. Madhyannapu Hatya or Marri Chettu (is there any quality control in this factory?) as being the answer to internationally entertaining movies (partly because there are lifted from the more popular English versions). Neither do I see the feeble attempts a la Raghavendra Rao's son in "Morning Raga" to be truly entertaining. These movies have no entertainment value for a casual movie goer anywhere in the world!! At best they depict that India a serious country devoid of any fun, and is stuck with its patriarchal cultural values. Unless someone is seriously pursuing Indian cultural studies full time, I don't think that is the focus of the "lets have fun" Telugu public. Don't get me wrong, Varma's flicks have great technical values, and attempts like "Morning Raga" have great emotional value. But they are simply not fun!!!!

So what is the answer to how can we make Telugu movies international entertainers? Here is a whacky example how!! I think "Sye" is an excellently made entertainer. Plus it has Rugby as the backdrop, which is nothing less than a religion, in the UK, New Zealand and in Australia (I could be missing a lot more countries here). So, dub it in English, re-shoot bits and parts that need demographic integrations, cut out the songs (I don't think they like the hero dancing around! I have nothing against it though!!), trim it a lit bit and lo we have an entertainer that can reach the populace in those countries. I am sure it will be a commercially viable entertainer out there!! I think we can hit the "Lagaan" factor there. By that I mean that it was "Cricket" in "Lagaan" that was a definite crowd puller in India, and quite frankly was ringing the cash registers!! If we don't succeed, in this attempt well we would have tried a different angle to sell Telugu cinema internationally and I think that attempt would be refreshing for our cinema. I would personally be thrilled just to watch what happens if such an idea is actually made reality. I am sure with the Telugu people distributing in those countries, and our very own English speaking ability (read call center creating ability) this idea is feasible even business wise. So "Sye aaaa Mari", producers of Sye??

Pavan Malladi

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