Less is more: latest trend is sure to stay for longer

We have already crossed the first quarter of the year and the film industry is all set to
keep its balance sheet ready. With the pandemic situation and not much of theatrical
releases over the last two years and only a few big releases lined up, before the year
ends, movie experts have already prepared the hits and misses list for the incumbent
year. Looking at the number and genre of films released this year; looks like the
producers have taken a lot of inspiration from last year’s box-office records. Last year’s
mistake has been avoided to a large extent.

Recently, the recipe has been straightforward: newcomers combined with a compelling
plot line, realistic characters, plus adequate social media support, and voila! A movie is
on its way!

With the pandemic situation and not much of theatrical releases over the last two years

movie experts have already prepared the hits and misses list for the incumbent year

The year is about to end and Sandalwood is all set to keep its balance sheet ready. With
only a few big releases lined up, before the year ends, Sandalwood experts have already
prepared the hits and misses list for the incumbent year.
Looking at the number and genre of films released this year; looks like the producers
have taken a lot of inspiration from last year’s box-office records. Last year’s mistake
have been avoided to a large extent.

This year’s mantra has been simple-- Newbies coupled with strong story line, realistic
characters, proper social media support and Here comes the movie!
With Rakshit Shetty winning State Awards for Ulidavaru Kandante, first-of-its-kind
horror-thriller Rangitaranga running in packed houses for almost a year and Pawan
Kumar’s crowd-funding movie Lucia making noise overseas last year, a lot of
filmmakers, especially the newbie’s, have decided to take the same road, which seems
less risky and more economical.

The year began with Killing Veerappan, starring Shivarajkumar. Made with a minimal
budget, despite having a huge star cast, the movie went on to become the blockbuster of
the year. Another aspect to be noted here is that the movie is not just a biography, but
also a realistic film. The trend continued in with the release of Last Bus and Ricky. Last
Bus, a horror-thriller, was also made by a bunch of new talents with minimum budget.
Ricky raised the bar for Rakshit-Rishab combination films, despite facing criticism for
being slow and a predictable one.

Second month of the year February saw a good number of small-budget films releasing.
Mahesh-starrer Bhagyaraaj, Prakash Rai’s Devaranaadalli, Jwala’s Jwalantham, winning
duo Dayal Padmanabhan and Naveen Krishna’s Actor, AMR Ramesh’s Game ensured that
the trend of low-budget, non-star-performer movies too can make noise at the box-
office. Here too, most of these films were realistic movies -- either inspired by real-life
incidents or made to cater to A, B as well as C-class audience.
Suman Kittur’s Kiragurina Gayyaligalu, Suni’s Simpleaag Innond Love Story did up the
ante. Gayyaligalu, inspired by writer Poornachandra Tejaswi’s novel by the same name,
took Sandalwood’s box-office fight to next level. There are only a handful of films made
with female lead, sans glam-avatar and Gayyali broke all the stereotypes, just by smart
dialogue delivery! Audiences were stunned to see saree-clad women taking on villains
without wearing a designer jacket or riding a bullet! Post this, lead actress Shwetha
Srivatsav was hugely appreciated for her choice of films, stating from her debut.

Raam Reddy’s Tithi turned out to be an absolute game changer in Sandalwood this year.
Consisting of a cast of non-professional actors from villages in the Mandya district, the
movie won international acclaim. Often referred to as groundbreaking, rule-bending
masterpiece, the movie opened to mostly positive reviews, thus, paving way to new
genre! Another movie Tharle Villagers, starring the lead actors from Thithi, is all set to
release this year. The trailer is already viral on YouTube!

With star-actors not agreeing to sign more than 2 to 3 films a year and rarely making a
decision to open the doors for new filmmakers; both for producers and directors, the
new-gen, went up with plan-B, which, for now, is working fine for them.

Films like Pawan Kumar’s crowd-funded U-turn, horror-thriller Karva and Naani,
Rakshit Shetty’s Godhi Banna Sadharana Maikattu, July 22, 1947, satirical comedy
Neerdose, Golisoda, Idolle Ramayana, Kahi, which released in the second half of the year,
helped Sandalwood maintain the balance.

Also, a noticeable aspect of the talk-of-the-town films released this year is that most of
them are realistic and made by the entry level talents. For a very long time Sandalwood
worked with closed doors, letting in only a sizable number of freshers inside the
industry. But thanks to the latest trends, social media, and digitization and of course the
producers who were ready to take the risk to invest in them. Sandalwood started to see
a sea change in filmmaking. Apart from the traditional running around the trees and
hero saving a million people and lead actresses always portrayed as glamour quotient,
Sandalwood did take a few risks.

As mentioned earlier, social media too had a crucial role to play these days. A small push
by a well-known celebrity, on social media, is giving massive publicity to the films.
Trailer trending on social media and people thronging to theatres just by watching the
trailer are perfect examples for this trend.

Damsel in distress? Not anymore!

Be it Parul Yadav’s character in Killing Veerappan or Ragini Dwivedi’s in Parapancha or

Haripriya in Ricky, the lead actress are no more damsel in distress. They know to stand
for themselves (as movie characters) and some even carried the movie on their
shoulders, alongside lead actors. Shwetha Srivatsav as a typical villager Daanamma in
Kiragoorina Gayyaligalu, Haripriya as Radha who seeks revenge as a Naxalite in Ricky,
Manisha Koirala as a strong independent business woman in Game, Shraddha Srinath as
a Journalist in U-turn, Shruthi Hariharan as a doctor in GBSM, Priyamani and Haripriya
as call girls in Idolle Ramayana and Neerdose respectively, these actresses are nothing
but the characters we see or come across in our daily lives. This too is a welcome change
in Sandalwood.
While many actresses have ‘nothing more than being a glam doll and dance to the tunes
of lead actors’ in high-budget, star actors movies, these kind of low-budget, realistic
films have come as a boon for the actress who want to be an evidence of their caliber.