Heroines - prime focus inTollywood

From being the mandatory glamour fixes in films to having roles being scripted for them, the Telugu film actress has finally arrived.

Be it ‘Anasuya’, released last December, where Bhumika Chawla plays the lead or ‘Mantra’ starring Charmee, the heroine in the film has held fort. Both films have been huge draws at the box office.

Strapped in the cute-n-bubbly college-going roles, actresses have for years lamented the absence of different roles in the country’s biggest film industry. When their counterparts in Bollywood had started waking up to experimental cinema and started playing unexplored roles, leading ladies here were still singing in the rain, watching the heroes call the shots.

No longer. Stories are now being written with women actors in mind, shootings schedules are being planned only after confirming their availability. Most importantly, they are being paid what they are demanding.

“Just before ‘Mantra’ was released last month, Charmee did not allow the producers to put off paying her remuneration. She made it an issue so that she would not get a raw deal,” film industry sources said.

Incidentally, these films are also named after the leading women. Be it ‘Anasuya’, ‘Mantra’ or ‘Satyabhama’ or for that matter even ‘Maisamma IPS’, the film carries the name of the female lead.

Leading the pack of heroines who have started working on their terms and conditions is Bhoomika Chawla. Her film ‘Anasuya’ in which she plays a television reporter released on December 21 last year is doing well at the box office. She was also the major attraction in ‘Satyabhama’ (both Anasuya and Satyabhama were named after Chawla’s character in the film), released on July 6, 2007. In fact, in 2003 itself with ‘Misamma’ that the actress showed that a heroine could hold the fort on her own and that a big hero was not necessary for a movie.

Chawla is leading a pack of heroines who have replaced the conventional hero. Some of them are charging a remuneration of up to Rs 20 lakh for each film. “Giving up glamourous roles could be a big risk for a heroine but some of them are willing to take such risks. And their gamble is paying off,” a trade analyst said.

Take for instance ‘Mantra’, a low budget action-packed thriller starring Charmee in the lead. Released in December last, the film earned Charmee rave reviews and established itself as a hit in the box office even as a superhero’s much hyped film was floundering.

And if a Mumaith Khan, so far, may have danced only in item numbers to make men miss a heart beat, she managed to carry an entire film on her often exposed shoulders.

And there is more on offer. Tabu, Sanghavi and Sindhu Tolani have all been cast as main leads in films that have either been released or are under production in the Telugu film industry.

Actor Sanghavi who seemed to have vanished from the scene is making a return with a film titled ‘Indrani’ directed by M A Chowdhary. Sanghavi has a meaty role to play in the film which is about how a woman handles the situation when the family has been deceived by someone. Sindhu Tolani is playing the main lead in T Prabhakar’s ‘Bathakamma’.

Mumaith Khan was imported from Bollywood for item songs in Telugu films but after her lead role in ‘Maisamma IPS,’ she is getting more such roles. The movie was released with 121 prints, something unheard of for a movie without even a hero in the film. She is also doing the main lead in ‘Mangathayaru Tiffin Centre’.

Director Chandra Siddharth is directing ‘Edhi Sangathi’ which will give acclaimed actor Tabu an opportunity to showcase her talent in Tollywood, after having made her mark internationally.