Back in 1996 staring stealthily at movie wall posters and banners while
walking to School and making an entry of the release dates and the
number of days a particular Movie has run into my mind’s movie registers
was a pretty common thing for me. One fine day I glimpsed at this weird
poster which had nothing but “ee abbai meeku telusa” (Do you know this
guy?) written on it. The poster remained for about 45 days with the
posters getting changed every week with content on it being same.
Eventually, they released this first look of Pawan kalyan couple of
weeks before the release of the movie “Akkada Ammai Ikkada Abbai”
revealing his name as Kalyan. While the film managed only a mediocre run
at the box office, the only thing that surfaced out of the movie was
Kalyan’s skill with martial arts which were elegantly presented in the
movie.
Due to my limited means, as a kid, I did not get to watch his next couple of movies Suswagatham and Gokulam lo Seeta. Nevertheless I kept track of the statistics and gossip about these movies through newspapers – enough to know that Gokulam lo seeta ended as a hit while Suswagatham went on to become a Super hit.
The kind of hysteria Pawan Kalyan created among the youth with Toli Prema benchmarkedthe beginning of Kalyan’s “Era of Stardom”. I know of people who watched this movie more than 50 times in theaters (I am not exaggerating). There were guys who watched this movie show after show, day after day at the expense of missing classes months together. I still remember watching this movie on its 63rd day in Sandhya with full house crowd with one full row of friends. Although it takes another 4 full pages to write about that whole experience, I will summarize it in four phrases just to give an idea of how it was ….
“whistles for every scene
with Tons of confetti all over the screen
With Shirts whirling in air
the dances in the aisles etched an indelible memoir”
After ToliPrema Pawan Kalyan became “darling of youngsters”. People loved Pawan in ToliPrema (1998) but were not sure what exactly they liked in him. The confusion got cleared when Thammudu (1999) released in the next year. His energetic acting, dances, comedy timing – especially in “the shakuntala akkayya scene”, his style – not just dress or hair style but even the small mannerisms like getting off the bike differently over its handle etc., caught every youngster’s attention and thus made him the uncrowned “Youth Icon of Andhra”. Even Anti-Megastar fans, especially youth thronged the theaters and watched this movie several times to witness Pawan’s magic and thus the first vibes started to show up that this “Thammudu can give a tug of war to even the mighty Annayya !! “.
After Thammudu, Pawan introduced Puri Jagannath – one of the rarest gems – to Telugu Film Industry (TFI) as a Director through the film Badri. Today, even after 12 years, for me Pawan means Badri, Badri means Pawan. It stands as the most favorite movie of Pawan. The movie started off with a negative buzz at the box office and during the same week I read in some newspaper about Puri confessing that there was quite a bit of Pawan’s influence in many departments of it. Puri probably meant to point out that the below par outcome should also be attributed to Pawan. Second week onwards the movie picked up and went on to become a solid hit at the box office. Since then, for the next 12 years both these powerful asteroids have been going around the Filmi universe in their own orbits and now their orbits have aligned and the deadly asteroids of TFI are coming together to bombard the industry on October 18th.“Atom bomb ki baggumantunna aggi pulla thodu authe emouddi? Motha mogipoddi !!!” Similarly Pawan’s power ki Puri’s characterization thodu authe ika “Boxoffice baddal baashingaale” !!
Flopullo undaga kodithene first day boxoffice daggara Pawan punch ela untundo Gabbarsingh tho telisindi. Oka Blockbuster kottaka nalugu nelalu nindakoondane cinema release chesthe, first day effect ela unadalo [wait for 2 seconds], ela untundo [wait for a second] oka pandaga pabbam avasaram lekoondane choopinche cinema “Cameraman Ganga tho Rambabu” !
Pawan Kalyan’s craze reached new heights with Khushi (2001). The movie which released in Summer of 2001 became the biggest blockbuster in the career of Pawan Kalyan. His diction became an addiction to the college-goers while the style (Khushi bags) and mannerisms had such a strong impact on youth that the hangover of it has not withdrawn in many of those yet. With Khushi, Pawan became the “undisputed King of Nizam” which is one of the biggest movie territories in India and the biggest territory in Andhra.
Real heroes are not created by directors they create themselves !
Directors like Rajamouli, Trivikram, Puri Jaganadh have had their share in bringing out the talent of our current super stars and in giving them an image makeover or image overhaul for some. Like if Rajamouli had boosted the image of one of our super stars from time to time, Puri was responsible in bringing the desired image makeover to turn another star into commercial Superstar but it was Mr Konidela Pawan Kalyan himself with his unique, creative, and never-before-seen fights in the film “Badri”, his crazy dialogue delivery in “Khushi”, his hippie outfits in “Gudumba Shankar” and “Balu” is responsible for creating an indelible impression on Telugu cinephiles as POWERSTAR!
Which is why while rest of the “super” stars are requesting top directors to plan a movie with them the moment they score a hit – in the case of Pawan , its the other way round the top directors are willing to wait years for that “okka chance” to direct Pawan Kalyan.
Yes!! Ainakonchem tikka undhi, kaani daaniko lekknundhi :
After attaining the pinnacle of craze by introducing different shades of himself through the first six consecutive successful movies (Suswagatham, Gokulam Lo Seeta, Tholi Prema, Thammudu, Badri, Khushi) – Pawan could have continued the streak by joining hands with top notch directors and could have paved way to the superstardom comparable to the likes of Chiranjeevi and Rajnikanth, but his “thikka” of being and doing things differently and in his own way led him to grab the megaphone and direct himself to deliver the movie Johnny.
Many of you will contend that Johnny is a DISASTER ! Hell yeah!! It was !!! Johnny is a disaster critically, its a disaster commercially and its a disaster most popularly!! But,
Johnny will always be in the top 5 TFI all time movies with respect to its cinematography.
No other movie in TFI has ever had or will ever have the pre-release euphoria like that of Johnny.
There won’t be a Pawan Kalyan fan who does not like the movie Johnny .
If there is any flop movie than can make fans to beam with pride its J for J O H N N Y !
Last but not least Johnny was the stepping stone that led to the cult status that Pawan has attained today.
His penchant for trying something new (Thikka?) continued with Gudumba Shankar (2004). At a time when fans were eager to see Pawan to bounce back with an action entertainer, Pawan came out with Gudumba shankar an out and out comedy entertainer for which he wrote screenplay as well. The movie did not match fans’ expectations. His subsequent movies Balu(2005) and Annavaram(2006) did average business while Bangaram(2006) failed to remain decent.
Jalsa which released in 2008 went on to become the biggest commercial blockbuster of the year, its first weekend business was so striking in USA that its numbers were charted on boxofficemojo.com and thus introduced that site to Telugu cine-goers. The openings of the movie promised a sure shot industry hit but his interest to voice out something about the society (THIKKA?) lead to the Naxal episode in the movie which did not go well with the common movie audience and hampered the range of the success to some extent. As a fan I feel very proud when Media considers a commercial blockbuster like Jalsa as a success of not Pawan Kalyan’s calibre.
Brand factory:
If a star can claim himself as a brand name than a mere name then Pawan Kalyan’s aura is a brand factory than a mere brand. Because the brand Pawan Kalyan is so grand that anything that competes with it ends up being bland. Hero Ram has always been under the radar of critics for quite sometime that he imitates Pawan Kalyan, fact is that, he does not intentionally imitate, the influence of Pawan Kalyan’s mannerisms are so strong among the youth during the last decade that even heroes are not spared. He was an inspiration to Nitin who decided to become a star after watching Toli Prema. One can clearly see Pawan Kalyan’s mannerisms in Actor Nikhil. Some of the iconic mannerisms/scenes from his movies have become so frenzy among youth that our now mighty superstars like NTR ,MaheshBabu have attempted the same .To quote a few from the top of my head, like in the case of NTR, in the movie Ninnu choodalani, when heroine calls him and expresses her love, he gets off the bike goes behind a tree and dance mimiking Pawan’s ToliPrema scene and Mahesh attempted the rehashed version of Pawan Kalyan’s hillarious Sakuntala akkaya scene from Thammudu in the movie Yuvaraju.
Whether you call it influence or impression or imitation or intention, no one can deny the fact that he has been intrinsically invaluable to the industry in inspiring different talents.
Due to my limited means, as a kid, I did not get to watch his next couple of movies Suswagatham and Gokulam lo Seeta. Nevertheless I kept track of the statistics and gossip about these movies through newspapers – enough to know that Gokulam lo seeta ended as a hit while Suswagatham went on to become a Super hit.
The kind of hysteria Pawan Kalyan created among the youth with Toli Prema benchmarkedthe beginning of Kalyan’s “Era of Stardom”. I know of people who watched this movie more than 50 times in theaters (I am not exaggerating). There were guys who watched this movie show after show, day after day at the expense of missing classes months together. I still remember watching this movie on its 63rd day in Sandhya with full house crowd with one full row of friends. Although it takes another 4 full pages to write about that whole experience, I will summarize it in four phrases just to give an idea of how it was ….
“whistles for every scene
with Tons of confetti all over the screen
With Shirts whirling in air
the dances in the aisles etched an indelible memoir”
After ToliPrema Pawan Kalyan became “darling of youngsters”. People loved Pawan in ToliPrema (1998) but were not sure what exactly they liked in him. The confusion got cleared when Thammudu (1999) released in the next year. His energetic acting, dances, comedy timing – especially in “the shakuntala akkayya scene”, his style – not just dress or hair style but even the small mannerisms like getting off the bike differently over its handle etc., caught every youngster’s attention and thus made him the uncrowned “Youth Icon of Andhra”. Even Anti-Megastar fans, especially youth thronged the theaters and watched this movie several times to witness Pawan’s magic and thus the first vibes started to show up that this “Thammudu can give a tug of war to even the mighty Annayya !! “.
After Thammudu, Pawan introduced Puri Jagannath – one of the rarest gems – to Telugu Film Industry (TFI) as a Director through the film Badri. Today, even after 12 years, for me Pawan means Badri, Badri means Pawan. It stands as the most favorite movie of Pawan. The movie started off with a negative buzz at the box office and during the same week I read in some newspaper about Puri confessing that there was quite a bit of Pawan’s influence in many departments of it. Puri probably meant to point out that the below par outcome should also be attributed to Pawan. Second week onwards the movie picked up and went on to become a solid hit at the box office. Since then, for the next 12 years both these powerful asteroids have been going around the Filmi universe in their own orbits and now their orbits have aligned and the deadly asteroids of TFI are coming together to bombard the industry on October 18th.“Atom bomb ki baggumantunna aggi pulla thodu authe emouddi? Motha mogipoddi !!!” Similarly Pawan’s power ki Puri’s characterization thodu authe ika “Boxoffice baddal baashingaale” !!
Flopullo undaga kodithene first day boxoffice daggara Pawan punch ela untundo Gabbarsingh tho telisindi. Oka Blockbuster kottaka nalugu nelalu nindakoondane cinema release chesthe, first day effect ela unadalo [wait for 2 seconds], ela untundo [wait for a second] oka pandaga pabbam avasaram lekoondane choopinche cinema “Cameraman Ganga tho Rambabu” !
Pawan Kalyan’s craze reached new heights with Khushi (2001). The movie which released in Summer of 2001 became the biggest blockbuster in the career of Pawan Kalyan. His diction became an addiction to the college-goers while the style (Khushi bags) and mannerisms had such a strong impact on youth that the hangover of it has not withdrawn in many of those yet. With Khushi, Pawan became the “undisputed King of Nizam” which is one of the biggest movie territories in India and the biggest territory in Andhra.
Real heroes are not created by directors they create themselves !
Directors like Rajamouli, Trivikram, Puri Jaganadh have had their share in bringing out the talent of our current super stars and in giving them an image makeover or image overhaul for some. Like if Rajamouli had boosted the image of one of our super stars from time to time, Puri was responsible in bringing the desired image makeover to turn another star into commercial Superstar but it was Mr Konidela Pawan Kalyan himself with his unique, creative, and never-before-seen fights in the film “Badri”, his crazy dialogue delivery in “Khushi”, his hippie outfits in “Gudumba Shankar” and “Balu” is responsible for creating an indelible impression on Telugu cinephiles as POWERSTAR!
Which is why while rest of the “super” stars are requesting top directors to plan a movie with them the moment they score a hit – in the case of Pawan , its the other way round the top directors are willing to wait years for that “okka chance” to direct Pawan Kalyan.
Yes!! Ainakonchem tikka undhi, kaani daaniko lekknundhi :
After attaining the pinnacle of craze by introducing different shades of himself through the first six consecutive successful movies (Suswagatham, Gokulam Lo Seeta, Tholi Prema, Thammudu, Badri, Khushi) – Pawan could have continued the streak by joining hands with top notch directors and could have paved way to the superstardom comparable to the likes of Chiranjeevi and Rajnikanth, but his “thikka” of being and doing things differently and in his own way led him to grab the megaphone and direct himself to deliver the movie Johnny.
Many of you will contend that Johnny is a DISASTER ! Hell yeah!! It was !!! Johnny is a disaster critically, its a disaster commercially and its a disaster most popularly!! But,
Johnny will always be in the top 5 TFI all time movies with respect to its cinematography.
No other movie in TFI has ever had or will ever have the pre-release euphoria like that of Johnny.
There won’t be a Pawan Kalyan fan who does not like the movie Johnny .
If there is any flop movie than can make fans to beam with pride its J for J O H N N Y !
Last but not least Johnny was the stepping stone that led to the cult status that Pawan has attained today.
His penchant for trying something new (Thikka?) continued with Gudumba Shankar (2004). At a time when fans were eager to see Pawan to bounce back with an action entertainer, Pawan came out with Gudumba shankar an out and out comedy entertainer for which he wrote screenplay as well. The movie did not match fans’ expectations. His subsequent movies Balu(2005) and Annavaram(2006) did average business while Bangaram(2006) failed to remain decent.
Jalsa which released in 2008 went on to become the biggest commercial blockbuster of the year, its first weekend business was so striking in USA that its numbers were charted on boxofficemojo.com and thus introduced that site to Telugu cine-goers. The openings of the movie promised a sure shot industry hit but his interest to voice out something about the society (THIKKA?) lead to the Naxal episode in the movie which did not go well with the common movie audience and hampered the range of the success to some extent. As a fan I feel very proud when Media considers a commercial blockbuster like Jalsa as a success of not Pawan Kalyan’s calibre.
Brand factory:
If a star can claim himself as a brand name than a mere name then Pawan Kalyan’s aura is a brand factory than a mere brand. Because the brand Pawan Kalyan is so grand that anything that competes with it ends up being bland. Hero Ram has always been under the radar of critics for quite sometime that he imitates Pawan Kalyan, fact is that, he does not intentionally imitate, the influence of Pawan Kalyan’s mannerisms are so strong among the youth during the last decade that even heroes are not spared. He was an inspiration to Nitin who decided to become a star after watching Toli Prema. One can clearly see Pawan Kalyan’s mannerisms in Actor Nikhil. Some of the iconic mannerisms/scenes from his movies have become so frenzy among youth that our now mighty superstars like NTR ,MaheshBabu have attempted the same .To quote a few from the top of my head, like in the case of NTR, in the movie Ninnu choodalani, when heroine calls him and expresses her love, he gets off the bike goes behind a tree and dance mimiking Pawan’s ToliPrema scene and Mahesh attempted the rehashed version of Pawan Kalyan’s hillarious Sakuntala akkaya scene from Thammudu in the movie Yuvaraju.
Whether you call it influence or impression or imitation or intention, no one can deny the fact that he has been intrinsically invaluable to the industry in inspiring different talents.
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