Speaking at an event on Friday, composer SS Thaman said that online trolls are doing enormous damage to the Telugu film industry. He was probably saying those words in the context of Ram Charan's Game Changer being flooded with an avalanche of negative social media posts and memes.
"We are killing off our own cinema. This is very unfortunate. Telugu cinema is great. Out of hatred, you are destroying the industry. The pandemic nearly harmed the film industry. We have bounced back and are going places. Our movies are grossing big-time overseas. Even in countries like Africa and Norway, our movies are getting released. At a time like this, we must feel responsible and uphold our cinema. We have to protect our producers," Thaman said, making an emotional speech.
The failure of big-ticket movies will continue to elicit such emotive speeches from industry personalities. The failure of Kanguva generated a similar response from some quarters in Tamil last year. Suriya's wife Jyothika alleged targeted negativity. When Adipurush flopped at the box office, similar statements were made by some, including Prabhas' die-hard fans.
Bollywood has faced enormous levels of trolling over the past many years. The industry has been in doldrums since 2020. Yet, you don't see filmmakers there cribbing and emotionalizing like our people do.
"We must protect the producers" is a sentiment that the industry must take more seriously than the audience. Why don't our directors wrap up movies fast and efficiently? Very few star directors are budget-conscious. Anil Ravipudi wrapped up Sankranthiki Vasthunam in 70 working days. On each day, just Rs 20 lakh was spent. For a star hero movie, this was reasonable. In contrast, Game Changer was in the making for a much longer period and per-day spend by Dil Raju was triple or so. Production costs go up for reasons that are beyond the control of trolls and reviewers. Blaming online trolls is the most useless thing ever. If you enjoy blind fanism, be prepared to suffer extreme trolling as well.
