It is increasingly becoming evident that Telugu cinema is facing a crisis. As per news reports, Tollywood producers are having to move heaven and earth to secure remunerative OTT and satellite deals. Even a film like Vishwambhara, starring Chiranjeevi, is at the receiving end of poor OTT and satellite deals.
In this context, a view has taken root that Tollywood will eventually be saved by financing by political heavyweights when funding by financiers and support in the form of lucrative OTT deals dry up. As per YouTuber Ragadi, in a couple of years, Telugu cinema financing will be dominated by political parties.
While this view could be an exaggeration, it would be interesting to watch the pace at which this eventuality is going to unfold. It's an open secret that big-ticket films, whose budgets run into tens of crores, are funded indirectly by those who have tonnes of black money with them. Politicians and, probably, bureaucrats too have been funding Telugu films for many, many years.
What happens if politicians (be they legislators or Ministers) become the sole dominant forces? Will Telugu cinema start making propaganda movies? This won't happen. In Tamil cinema, political funding by pro-DMK forces means that their films occasionally make ideological noises. Their movies don't openly bat for DMK or AIADMK or BJP for that matter. Because nobody wants to alienate neutral audiences there. In the case of Telugu cinema, ideology-based cinematic narration is ruled out. Telugu States have no ideological inclinations of the kind we witness in Tamil Nadu. So, barring a few exceptions, the politicization of cinema is ruled out. Telugu trolls on social media might be given alms to make political noise around films. But cinema itself will be apolitical.
