Hyderabad: With comedian Viva Harsha turning hero with ‘Sundaram Master’ and failing to draw crowds at theatres, it looks like the trend of comedians-turning-heroes is not always a safe bet. “The comedian’s dream to turn heroes has taken a beating with some flops,” says director Teja, who claims that even the general audience are not inclined towards comic-capers. “We have enough comedy shows like ‘Jabardast’ on the small screen and even more comedians coming out of such shows but there is no space for all of them as heroes,” he adds. But the comedian-turned-actor Suhas scored a hit with ‘Colour Photo’ but couldn’t spin box office magic with his latest film ‘Ambajipeta Marriage Band’, although he played an underdog in both the movies. “I don’t think there is a set rule that a comedian should play an underdog to score at the box office because it all depends on good script and relatable characters. I do agree that they can’t play larger-than-life roles like big stars either,” he points out.
He admits that the trend of comedians playing lead roles is not new, the present wave of comedians appear keen to showcase their acting chops. “Legendary comedians like Nagesh, and Brahmanandam and Vadivelu in Kollywood and to some extent even Sunil became heroes after being hailed as star comedians, so these young comedians have to prove their mettle in their own domain before venturing into author-backed roles. With few big stars also doing comedies these days, it takes the sting out of comedian-turned-heroes’ efforts since audiences prefer to pay for stars over others,” he points out.
Of course, comedians like Sunil delivered hits like “Maryadaramana’ and ‘Poolarangadu’ while Srinivas Reddy tasted success with ‘Geetanjali’ and now awaiting ‘Geetanjal Malli Vachincidi’. Similarly, Priyadarshi drew crowds for his family drama ‘Balagam’ while Sudigali Sudheer has delivered more flops than hits. Whereas, noted rib-tickler Vennela Kishore is banking on ‘Chari 111’ to prove his mettle as hero and looks to turn things around for comedian-turned-hero. “I do agree that every actor worth his salt would like to play a protagonist in the film after playing sidekick to a hero in many films. No doubt, they draw whistles for their jokes in star films, but when doing a solo hero film, they are unable to get a similar response.
In fact, many comedians would be surprised about not drawing crowds without realising that the original crowd puller for star films was a big hero but now he has to pull in crowds and that is becoming difficult tasks with the comedy genre on the downslide. I wish they become numero uno comedians before moving to take up bigger roles,” he concludes.
