Tollywood’s latest sports drama Jersey, starring Nani in the lead role, is winning plaudits from all quarters for taking the audience on an emotional ride. Critics have rated Jersey as a one-of-its-kind classic which is a never before attempt in the history of Telugu cinema. It won’t be an exaggeration to put Jersey in the elite list of heartwarming and inspiring sports dramas of Indian cinema like Lagaan and Chak De India.
It is indeed a brave attempt by Nani to come out of the comfort zone at this point of his career and do an experimental subject like Jersey. While Bollywood star heroes have a strong penchant to feature in experimental films like sports dramas, Tollywood big heroes usually shy away from doing such films. If we consider top actors of Bollywood like Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, etc, at some point in their careers, they came out of the comfort zone and accepted unconventional stories to set a benchmark at the box office. However, most of our heroes are confined to doing only commercially viable films because of various equations like market and fan base.
Senior heroes Nagarjuna and Venkatesh tried their hand at experimental films only recently and succeeded to some extent. But, none of the current generation stars like NTR, Mahesh Babu, Ram Charan, Allu Arjun etc went against the grain to do different films. Nowadays, the audience is embracing content oriented films very well. So, it is time for our top stars to inspire from the success of Jersey and accept novel scripts to set an example as Bollywood stars did long back.
Is NANI not a star?