As a Hyderabadi and a resident of Telangana, the cultural impact of Telugu movies here is undeniable. Movie theatres often witness a frenzy, and the sway actors hold over the public here speaks for itself. But until a decade ago, there was always a bit of animosity here about how our people and the city were portrayed in Telugu movies.
While that has been changing slowly ever since Telangana was formed in 2014, with movies now featuring people speaking in the state’s dialect, I think the biggest shift has come with the release of the movie The Paradise. The reviews were generally negative, with critics generally brushing it off as a bad movie, but it has become a box office hit, crossing Rs 138 crore worldwide.
So what gives? First, the movie, starring Nani, features a small role clearly modelled on former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR), which has drawn many to the theatres out of curiosity. Second, I believe the movie indicates a change in Telangana-Andhra politics, especially given that Tollywood has historically relegated my state to stereotypes.
The Paradise is in fact one of the few movies I’ve seen that gets the iconography of Telangana and Hyderabad right. It features Liberty Theatre, an iconic space that does not exist anymore. The historic Yakut Mahal movie theatre, which is still around, appeared as well. Similarly, the movie’s name itself is a reference to the Paradise area in Secunderabad, home to the theatre-turned-popular restaurant of the same name.
More importantly, the movie very openly flaunts the tribal culture of the state. The hero Jadal’s mother is named Sammakka, while his dead sister is Sarakka, after two tribal goddesses. Their biennial festival, Sammakka-Saralamma Jathara, is one of the largest gatherings in the state.
These are just a few things, but it is a very positive step forward in correcting historical wrongs that people from Telangana have always complained about.
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Telangana’s spirit of struggle on screen
I can’t express how happy I was to see near-accurate portrayals of Telangana and its culture in the movie. As far as I remember, from my childhood to the early years of my professional career, the chatter would always be about how Hyderabad was never featured or represented and how the Telangana dialect would often be used for comic relief in movies.
If you look at the industry, it’s no secret that dialects considered ‘normal’ are those of the Krishna and Godavari districts in coastal Andhra Pradesh, which have historically been wealthier due to the availability of water.
Historically, the Tollywood industry was based in Madras or Chennai, as the Andhra region was part of the erstwhile Madras Presidency. But after independence, against the States Reorganisation Commission’s recommendation, Telangana and Andhra were merged to create the state of Andhra Pradesh.
The Commission originally suggested that Andhra and Telangana function separately until two-thirds of legislators from Telangana agreed to a merger. But this was eventually overlooked and Andhra Pradesh was created on 1 November 1956.
Looking back, what the Commission had to say was quite interesting: “One of the principal causes of opposition to Vishalandhra also seems to be the apprehension felt by the educationally backward people of Telangana that they may be swamped and exploited by the more advanced people of the coastal area.”
And it came true. The creation of AP changed everything. The Telugu cinema industry began shifting to Hyderabad within a few decades, especially with the arrival of Annapurna Studios here in 1976, established by the late actor and producer Akkineni Nageswara Rao.
“You find more entrepreneurs from AP itself, as many of them had a surplus of money due to agriculture developing in coastal Andhra from 100 years ago. This agriculture development under the British is why coastal Andhra has always been dominant,” someone associated with the Telangana statehood movement told me.
If you are wondering why the bias against Telangana existed in terms of the region being considered more backward, it also has historical roots because my state was more feudal under the Nizam of Hyderabad. About 40 per cent of the state’s 82,698 sq miles were run by state-appointed landlords called Jagirdars. Peasants faced constant oppression and tribals were treated as slaves.
In fact, this is why The Paradise hit so different in Telangana, as the story revolves around a tribal community fighting for recognition and their rights, and a landlord unwilling to let go of his feudalism. The killing of the landlord in every way represents what the people in my state consider its core — the spirit of struggle. This is something people from Andhra will never understand.
Yunus Lasania is a Hyderabad-based journalist whose work primarily focuses on politics, history and culture. He tweets @YunusLasania. Views are personal.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)