Dark is the new shade

With young sensation Karthikeya also playing the role of a baddy in his latest release 'Gang Leader,' it looks like the fascination for dark roles is here to stay in T-town.

Just a few days ago, the trailer of reigning star Varun Tej as ruthless gangster in 'Valmiki' created ripples of sorts. However, it was Jr NTR transformation has a villain in 'Jai Lava Kusa' that generated lot hype and showcased his acting range besides triggering a trend for hero-turned-villains.

In fact, Rana Daggupati, made a career and name with his negative role in 'Bahubali' and didn't look back ever since. "For Jr NTR and Varun Tej essaying a negative role is like extending their brand equity and showcase their acting chops.

Whereas, Rana Daggupati got noticed with his menacing performance in 'Bahubali' franchise after a slew of flops and subsequently his films like 'Nene Raju Nene Mantri' worked wonders at the box office.

No doubt, Karthikeya will stick to his angry lover boy roles, as this film could be an exception of sorts," says famed writer Gopi Mohan

However, the dark roles hasn't been a winning formula for Sharwanand, who couldn't draw collections for his lacklustre 'Ranarangam,' although he scaled a few aces as an actor by playing a brooding don.

Whereas, Nani, tasted success by showing his evil side in 'Gentleman,' so it all depends on the script and not on individual stars. "It seems that new-age Telugu stars are in a mood to experiment these days.

Although most of the Telugu stars like to don roles with negative shades only a few attempt it. Actually, an actor can portray varied emotions in a negative role than positive, because the latter is predictable and lacks sting," says director Puri Jagannath.

Similarly, Tamil stars also had 'mixed' luck in portraying villain roles. "Rajnikanth was a baddy-turned-hero and known for few powerful negative roles in the past.

So, viewers could connect to his menacing performance in `Robot' while Surya and Vikram tried to strike a chord with Telugu viewers in new avatars but failed," adds Puri Jagannath. Summing up the trend, director Vinayak says next gen are game for variety.

"Instead of essaying predictable roles, new-age Telugu stars are exploring varied shades-grey and dark-to push their career upwards.

The earlier generation of stars-Chiranjeevi, Balakrishna, Nagarjuna and Venkatesh- never attempted a dark role, but Gen Y have no such qualms."