Popular Tamil stars draw a blank?

With Tamil star's Suriya's latest movie 'Bandobast' crashing at the box office, it looks like the popularity of Tamil stars is waning among Telugu viewers.

Even mighty Rajinikanth had to taste a failure with 'Petta' this year, while his younger colleagues Vikram, Karthi, Ajith Kumar and Vishal dented their ratings with duds like 'Mr KK,' 'Dev,' 'Viswasam' and 'Agoygya' respectively.

"No doubt, the market of Tamil stars in Telugu has hit a new low and buyers are reluctant to touch their movies," says distributor Meesala Srinivas, who pats Tamil star Vijay for keeping the flag of dubbed movies flying high.

"Vijay has expanded his market and also gained respect with consecutive hits like 'Adhirindi' and 'Sarkar' and his next 'Biggil' has been bought for Rs 8 crore amidst raising expectations."

In fact, the dubbing rates for movies of Tamil stars like Rajnikanth, Surya and Karthi has come down by almost half in the last one year.

"The rates are struck anywhere between Rs 3 to 7 crore, unlike in the past where their films were traded between Rs 7 to Rs 18 crore each," says distributor Mallikarjun Yadav, who is worried about failing fortunes of new-age Tamil stars like Dhanush, Vijay Antony, Siva Karthikeyan and Jivva.

"Films of these stars were affordable and more than 20 to 25 Telugu producers relied on dubbed movies to keep their careers afloat, but not anymore.

Dhanush gained momentum with 'Raghuvaran B Tech' but lost his way with duds like 'VIP 2'. Vijay Antony became a star overnight with blockbuster 'Bichagadu' but failed to keep up his winning streak with duds like 'Killer'. Siva Karthikeyan's 'Seema Raja' also bombed," he reasons.

Actually, the market of new-age Tamil stars is fluctuating these days. So, the career of these stars had to be judged film by film since they don't have a fixed fan following among Telugu viewers.

"It will take time for gen next stars to earn the love of Telugu fans.

Meanwhile, Arun Vijay is making a career in Telugu with films like 'Saaho' and Aadi Pinisetty doing more Telugu films to keep their stocks soaring but other Tamil stars have to draw crowds to prove their expanding fan base in the two Telugu states," adds distributor Vamsi Kishore, who cites the bad show of Tamil actor Arya's 'Gajendrudu' and Jivva's 'Key' recently.

"Director Lawrence is holding his fort in Telugu with big hit like 'Kanchana 3', despite drawing flak for overdose of skin show and over-the-top acting.

His horror comedies look to be safe bet for now," says distributor Ajay, who wants other Tamil stars to return with novel content.

"It is high time Tamil stars realise it and comeback with refreshing plots to enthral Telugu viewers once again," he concludes.