Liger, an important reminder for Telugu cinema to return to basics

There’s no better phase than now for the Telugu film fraternity to smell the coffee and return to basics. The success of films like KGF2, Pushpa, RRR had left them so delusional that every second actor or director tried to punch above their weight, aimed too high and lost track of the very basics of filmmaking. While promotions, hype are integral to every film, it’s important that the story has enough meat in it to back their bombastic claims.

Liger has had to pay a heavy price for the same reason. The film is a perfect instance of how any big release can fall apart like a pack of cards if the hype and the content aren’t on an even scale. The makers of Vijay Deverakonda, Ananya Panday starrer literally cheated their audiences, resorting to extensive promotions to pass off a disastrous product as a pan-Indian film. The anger is palpable in the reactions of the average viewer and it’s not going to die anytime soon.

Though loyal Vijay Deverakonda fans may try to distract us by discussing Liger's bombastic openings for the Hindi and Telugu versions, they’ll have to admit that it was a nightmare of catastrophic proportions as a film. For heaven’s sake, filmmakers need to remember it is the movies that ensure stardom to actors - it’s Rajamouli who made Prabhas a star with Chatrapathi and Baahubali. Stars are born out of well-made films.

If you cite Karthikeya 2’s success as an excuse to justify your unrealistic budgets, please also remember that the film’s core target audience was the Telugu speaking lot. And you can’t ignore the huge advantage it earned in the Hindi version with the tepid response to Laal Singh Chaddha and Raksha Bandhan. Please don’t forget that the film made use of the vulnerable socio political-climate to drive its message - the focus of the film was sadly about religion.

For every Baahubali, we’ve had a Saaho. For every Pushpa or RRR, there was a Radhe Shyam and for every Karthikeya 2, Liger was the party pooper. Stop diverting the focus of a film towards your budget, scale and opening numbers and work on the product. Bimbisara team had spent over six months for the VFX alone and more than any promotions, it’s the audiences who publicised it after its release.

What else can also explain the success of a period romance like Sita Ramam, that has broken every myth in the industry? From the budget to the non-speaking Telugu actors to its treatment, it’s a film that has proved the so-called industry trackers wrong by a long stretch. Make films that are rooted in their setting, tell the stories of your target audience and let your calculations for other audiences come in later. Liger is a ghost that will caution TFI to not build castles out of thin air.