Casteim in Telugu Film industry

Casteism in Telugu film industry is one of the most discussed topic among the Telugu folks in the recent times. Government’s attempt to put restrictions on the movie ticket prices in Andhra Pradesh in the early 2022 was observed as government’s attempt to crush the financial power houses of one of the prominent castes. Earlier, distribution, production, opportunities and rise of an actor were alleged to have some influence of caste politics in Telugu film industry but in the digital and Pan Indian era, the PR works, twitter trending, More youtube likes and views, hype for the movie are also alleged to have the influence of caste factor. Let’s see how casteism in telugu film industry influences things.

First one needs to understand if there is any caste which dominates the film industry and how. Movie comprises 24 crafts , therefore one caste cannot dominate all of them. Unlike Bollywood , Tolly wood film industry is not alleged to have Underworld contacts. It is not controlled or managed by any under curtain forces. However, there is Cast card which helps few of them to grow or succeed but cannot solely make them stars of succeed just because of having caste.

Are Brahmins dominating in Telugu film industry ?

It is a blind rule for Historians or social speakers that Brahmins Dominate the society. The Young ones of today’s south Indian generation can’t connect the dots as we cannot see any Brahmin community dominating any of the sectors – Politics, Cinema or business. They are only seen in IT sector or in Temples.

Brahmins were influential in Tamil film industry till 80s. Brahmins were infact influential in Madras city till 80s but other castes too grow strongly during their era. Music Maestro Ilaya Raja, Director Bharathi Raja, Super Star Rajinikanth etc are strong examples.

This was never the case in Tollywood. Only Music department was dominated by Brahmin Singers and Music directors. Likes of Balasubramaniam , Ghantasaala were from Brahmin community ( Bala Subramaniam is a Veerashaiva born and not exactly a regular brahmin ). Many singers of today’s generation are Brahmins.

Then Which caste dominates Telugu film industry ?

Before understanding this , let’s see the caste of different actors and influential personalities of Telugucinema.

The major commercial stardom began with ANR -Akkineni Nageshwar Rao who is considered as early days big superstar after Chitoor Nagaiah who faded out shortly. Mr. Nageshwar rao hailed from Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh and belonged to Poor Kamma ( Choudhary ) caste family. He hardly went to school due to poverty and could not even write his name in Telugu properly. Had to depend on stage dramas (Women and girl roles due to Fair and thin looks ) for livelihood. He was lucky enough to be spotted by a Brahmin Director ” Ghantalsala Balaramaiah” . Though Nageshwar rao belonged to Kamma caste, the Mr. Ghantasala gave him the lead role in the movie Sri Seeta rama Jananam.

Nageshwar Rao was lucky enough to get chance in film industry and became the first commercial star of Telugu cinema.

NTR , Nandamuri Taraka Ramarao belonged to middle class Kamma Caste family who was a graduate and earned a government job in revenue office. He was spotted by L.V.Prasad ( Kamma caste -Choudhary ) a noted director and producer (Dadasaheb Phalke Award winner ). L.V.Prasad gave a short and noted police officer role in ” Manadesham ” movie which helped NTR to get noticed by other film makers like Adurthi Subba Rao , K . Prakash Rao ( Kamm caste ).

Therefore, Suddenly two Kamma Actors have become top stars of Telugu cinema by 1960s. Kantha Rao, Sridhar etc were other Actors who were in limelight for few years but soon faded out as there was not enough support for them from top directors.

in 1970s , there was an emergence of some of the young actors like Krishna, Shobhan Babu, Krishnam Raju, Chandra Mohan etc..

Chandra Mohan was a Brahmin and could not get other than family and good classics and most were supporting lead roles.

Krishnam Raju ( Prabhas’s Uncle ) hails from Raju Community (kshatriya ) and had only few hits in his entire career.

Krishna emerged as Super star of this era 1970-1985 with multiple hits every year and few of the industry hits of those times. He belonged to Kamma Caste. ( Mahesh Babu’s father ).

Shobhan Babu emerged as star actor by 80s and become one of the all time richest actor in Indian cinema . He invested huge in real estate through his film remunerations. He was the most commercially successful film star than even the three Khans of Bollywood in comparing revenues. He too belonged to Kamma caste.

Murali Mohan, Mohan babu were other small stars ( Mohan babu become bigger star in early 90s and faded out ) belonged to Kamma caste.

However, the Music and direction department had seen the talents of other communities. K.Vishwanath (DadasahebPhalke award winner ), Legendary Dasari Narayan rao were Brahmin and Balija caste respectively . There was huge list of other talented writers and directors of other caste.

They lyricists were mostly Brahmins as they were good with language.

Thus Film industry was completely dominated by Kamma caste actors till 1980s.

Then entered an energetic brown skin bellbottom guy with impeccable dancing skills and he is none other than ” Konidela Shiva Shankara Vara Prasad ” who eventually became Megastar Chiranjeevi.

Chiranjeevi belonged to Kapu caste and had struggled enough to get meaty roles but didnt take much time. He had few industry connections and got small roles initially but it was his exceptional talent which gave him lead roles.

After couple of Small hits and a short career , he could impress the veteran Comedian ” Allu Ramalingaiah ” – A rich and affluent person from film industry . Allu Ramalingaiah was a close legendary actor to NTR and ANR and also filthy rich. He got his daughter Surekha married to the then upcoming actor Chiranjeevi. There was no turn back for the Chiranjeevi after this great deal. He was encouraged and supported by Allu Family in his career. He rose to the level of Mega star with his great dance and action skills.

The 1981-1990 was the period completely dominated by Chiranjeevi with occasional blockbusters by Krishna and Shobhan babu.

However, there was a silent rise of another young and good looking actor with actual no background. Suman talwar -A Fair and Handsome actor with good Martial arts skills ( Blackbelt in Karate ) started giving back to back hits and earned huge fame across Telugu and Tamil industries. He belonged to Backward caste – Gouds from Karnataka.

Suman was the only actor with no caste background and no relatives in Film industry who witnessed huge success with movies. His stardom was such that there used to be a big que of producers every day infront of his house in Madras.

However, he was arrested under Hooligan act alleging involvement in Blue Film making by the then Tamil nadu government . After that he never saw the previous glory in film career.

Then there was a complete change in the top league actors as NTR entered Politics, ANR got too old , Krishna and Shobhan Babu stopped updating and gradually reducing movies. It was the time for youngsters to test their luck.

In late 80s, there were many young actors who tested their luck. Out of almost close to 50+ actors , only Balakrishna, Nagarjuna, Venkatesh could withstand the failures and emerge as successful stars by 90s. Thanks to their huge background as they were kids of NTR, ANR and Ace producer Ramanaidu respectively.

All the above three top stars belong to Kamma caste.

Actor Bhanuchander, Suresh, Vinod etc were from other castes and could survive for over a decade and fade out. They had good hits to have a long run but their career faded out by 90s.

Then again in the early 90s, there was a requirement of new generation actors to play the lead roles in the small low budget and family budget movies.

Chiranjeevi was leading with huge margins , improving with each movie. His movies started ringing cash counters and emerged as India’s top earning star by late 80s. His movies started making profits in Crores and he was the first Indian actor to charge 1 Crore as remuneration.

The other slots were easily and quickly occupied by Balakrishna , Venkatesh and Nagarjuna.

In Industry, there is a requirement of small and medium budget movie actors. The subjects require low budget and low charging stars. These are generally the good content movies with not much Masala and action and these kind of drama movies gross pretty decent but not like top action movies. Therefore, these movies are not okayed by the top stars.

Then that is when , Telugu film industry found two other stars to play the lead roles in family movies and low budget love stories.

Srikanth Meka and Jagapathi babu are the two actors who fulfilled the industry requirement of low budget stars. Naveen Vadde was another star who shined for over a decade and faded out.

All the three stars again belonged to Kamma caste.

What so ever, the No.1 slot was retained by Chiranjeevi ( Kapu Caste ) for over three decades though there were around 8-9 Kamma caste stars competing with him.

After 90s , it was the time for another new generation to take over with new subjects. Early 2000 and there on , was all about appealing love stories and young action entertainers.

Telugu audience were looking to embrace new stars with new subjects. First one to steal hearts was the young Pavan Kalyan- younger brother of Chiranjeevi.

Pavan kalyan hinted that he is all set to take over his brother’s spot of No.1 of Tollywood. He had 4 continous industry hits. Obviously he belonged to Kapu caste.

Mahes Babu debuted in the late 90s almost along with Pavan kalyan but was able to deliver only one hit with debut movie and later movies didnt appeal unlike that of Pavan Kalyan. Though he proved with his performances , he was still lagging behind.

There was a sudden sensational entry of a young innocent Chocolate boy with a low budget movie ” Chitram”. This young boy was a local Hyderabadi who was a new college graduate and competed with hundreds of talents in the selections at Usha Kiron movies office. Director Teja was looking a young innocent yet charming guy who can steal hearts of girls and he found ” Uday Kiran “.

Uday kiran was a middle class boy who dreamed about becoming an actor and struggled a lot for offers. He was destined to be a star in short time. His first movie ” Chitram ” though was a blockbuster , he didnt get many offers. Uday belonged to Brahmin caste and the director who gave him the chance was a Kamma community person ” Teja ” who has liberal views and openly hates casteism.

Uday Kiran had 4 consecutive blockbusters out of which 3 were industry hits. He emerged as the most charismatic young hero and rose to the level of top star among the new generations.

All his movies made producers running and laughing all the way to the banks and his movies ran for more than 200 days. Until his engagement with daughter of Chiranjeevi. The relationship was cancelled mysteriously and his career saw a sudden decline. He lost numerous offers overnight and few of the movies got cancelled after few days of shoot.

However, Uday Kiran ended his career with almost no losses to his producers. His last movie” Jai Shree Ram” too was a table profit movie to his producers.

Due to spat with the Kapu caste Chiranjeevi -A brahmin actor with huge craze was crushed to the ashes. It would be surprised to know that Uday had lost around 10 projects in 2 years of time.

Tarun -was another Kamma actor who had almost similar image of Uday but a little less stardom. He too gradually saw a decline in stardom due to subject selections.

Many young actors saw one or two hits during this decade of 2000 -2005 like Rohit, Deepak, Santosh Pavan, Aakash but none had a third successful movie and all faded out in less than a decade.

Meanwhile, Junior NTR- the grandson of NTR saw an unexpected stardom with S.S.Rajamouli ‘s directorial ” Simhadri” .

The other side, public went crazy for Mahesh Babu’s action packed ” Okkadu ” and it made him star. But he was still not in the top league until with “Pokiri “. The 2006 action movie directed by Puri Jagannadh had exposed the fact that Telugu audiences have made their mind to worship Mahesh Babu as their next top star. The No.1 slot was almost snatched from Chiranjeevi.

Pokiri ran for almost 200 days jam packed. it grossed 36+ crores at the box office which was a huge amount in 2006. Pokiri was remade in Tamil as Pokkiri (Vijay starrer ), Wanted by Salman Khan, in Kannada, Bengali etc….

Meanwhile, Pavan Kalyan, Junior NTR were experiences huge flops at the box office . NTR was struggling to gross 30+ crores at box office. Pavan Kalyan was able to see the success with ” Jalsa ” and entered 30+cr Club.

Mahesh Babu at the other side started increasing his image and success with movies like Dhookudu.

Dhookudu was a blockbuster from Mahesh Babu only to prove that his craze is real. A normal comedy action entertained became a industry hit and made him a clear No.1 . Another Industry hit Srimanthudu made him officially the top star of Tollywood.

Finally after 3 decades, the No.1 slot of Tollywood is crowned by another Kamma caste actor ” Mahesh Babu”.

Mahesh Babu undoubtedly remained as top star until Pan indian movies like Pushpa , Saaho , RRR made huge remarkable feats at box office.

There is a huge list of Top – Mediocre stars of Tollywood but not from wide variety of castes. Lets see the list :

The above data is the sample of some what successful actors who atleast acted in few of the movies to top stars. The data suggests that ” Kamma” caste is the most powerful and dominating caste in Tollywood as more than 20 actors ( 50% or more were highly successful ) are from Kamma caste.

There are only two struggling or faded out Brahmin caste actors.

Kapu caste are second leading but all are from same family ( Chiranjeevi ).