True Telugu movie buffs have to ask themselves this question. The industry just seems to have lost the art of producing classic and creative films that have a high-impact on the audience. In the late 70s and early 80s leading directors of the time like Dasari Narayana Rao stuck a wonderful balance between commercial and creative cinema. A “Sivaranjani” was as well received as a “Sardar Paparayudu”. Today though, except for Rajamouli who definitely has a keen eye for experimentation, there seems to be a tremendous shortage of directors (and producers for that matter) who can balance the big and small.

In that aspect, Tamil industry scores high. Heroes like Karthi made their debut in low budget thrillers made with powerful and interesting scripts. Even established heroes like Suriya and Vishal succumb to creative urges in doing offbeat films. But our heroes just don’t seem interested.

The bigger heroes end up making films with ever increasing budgets that protect and project their star image while the smaller ones try their best to ape their bigger counterparts. The casualty in this pursuit of image and glamor is good creative cinema.