Dream merchants on comeback trail

It seems that seasoned directors like Puri Jagannath, Srinu Vaitla, Gunasekhar, Teja and Boyapati Srinu are on a comeback trail this year. Starting with Puri Jagannath, who is going through a lean patch, would be hoping to bounce back into the limelight with his upcoming movie 'iSmart Shankar'.

"His new film triggered some hype, but we have to see whether he can draw openings. Because his earlier movies like 'Rogue' to 'Paisa Vasool' sank without trace. A bunch of flops clearly showed that he lost connect with gen-next viewers. Time for him to regain his winning habit," says distributor Venkateswara Rao, who claims that Gunasekar is also looking for a comeback with 'Hiranyakasipudu' with Rana.

"Gunasekar is known for his lavishness but he needs to find good script," adds Rao. "Krishna Vamsi is also planning to wield the megaphone once again but he needs to avoid making loud movies. His last release 'Nakshatram' was a damp squib and he is surely traversing a rough path," adds distributor Trinath.

Another director Srinu Vaitla, who is not in a mood to give up even after flops like 'Amar Akbar Antory' is reportedly planning a multi-starrer and wants to remix his old hits 'Ready' and 'Dhee'.

"Srinu's brand of comedy has crossed the expiry date and he needs to re-invent itself, rather than rehashing his old hits, or else it will be too late for him," says Bharat Bhushan, who also reminds the plans of director Teja to do a multi-starter after delivering a miserable flop like 'Sita'.

"Teja should give up under-dog love stories and pick some novel themes to give audience a taste of variety. He is repeating done-to-death love stories, so its high time he changed tracks," adds Bhushan.

Another top-notch director Boyapati Srinu, who received huge flak for 'Vinaya Vidheya Rama,' has to regain his confidence and past glory too.

"Luckily, he is teaming up his favourite actor Balakrishna with whom he delivered hits like 'Legend' but if he if chooses a wrong script, his ratings would fall further down," says distributor Vishnumurthy.

According to film industry sources, some 50-plus directors draw a pay of more than Rs 10 crore per film. "Some directors are not justifying their huge pay cheques and they are no more bankable names.

Once their names spun box office magic, but not anymore," says distributor Choudhury, who charges that financially well-settled directors are taking things for granted. With the advent of new-age directors like Nag Ashwin, Venkat Atluri, Tarun Bhascker and Swaroop, popular dream merchants should look beyond just star image and lavishness.

"Their stories are lacking emotional quotient and novelty. They are relying more on breath-taking visuals and high-funda action sequences riding on star image.

It is high time that they get back to the drawing table and pen novel storylines or else their career's will go down further." concludes Choudury.BVS