Editorial : Hits & Flops are temporary, Stardom is long-drawn

“Success Is Never Ending, Failure Is Never Final” – is the title of book by famous author Robert H. Schuller. This title applies aptly to star heroes who rise like phoenix every time when others write them off. Unfortunately many believe that ‘Success is never ending’, especially when the star heroes are on streak of delivering successful films; but they don’t realise that ‘Failure is never final’ when the same heroes are giving flop movies. After much hyped film of the season – SPYder, failed to live up to the expectations, some section of people, some websites, some trollers started a campaign that Mahesh Babu’s era is gone and he no longer has the stamina of  a super star. Needless to say, these comments are ridiculous. Success and failure are part and parcel of life. Especially for film stars, hit and flop movies go hand in hand. Almost every star bounced back harder when all others called them “He is a gone case”.

Let’s take example of Megastar Chiranjeevi. His Gharana Mogudu (1992) successfully ran for 100 days in 56 centres. In that era, success of a movie was measured by the number of centres in which it played for 50 days and for 100 days. Similar to the contemporary 1st day collections, overseas collections, first week collections. After 1992, for couple of years, Chiranjeevi didn’t delivery any movie that had run in more than 30 centres for 100 days. Many people, in print media too, wrote articles explaining why Chiranjeevi can’t come back again. To add fuel to the fire, Chiranjeevi didn’t have any movie release in 1996. It was for the first time in his film career there no release in that year. But in 1997, came Hitler movie that became super hit and many celebrities came to express their happiness openly and gave a slogan, “Boss is back”. This slogan, which was popularised again during Khaidi 150, was used for Chiranjeevi in 1997 itself.

Similarly before the release of “Nuvvu Vastavani” movie an interviewer asked Nagarjuna, what will happen if this movie also flops. It may be noted that Nagarjuna had several utter flops before this movie. He smiled and replied, “Sky won’t fall down and earth won’t depress. No star hero fades out because of 3 to 4 , or for that matter 10 flops”. Pawan Kalyan also had a decade of no successful movies. Many commented that Pawan forgot acting completely. Some people even advised him to start portraying character oriented roles. In fact, a famous astrologer, during Ugadi predictions in a TV channel (Studio N) in 2012, predicted that he will shift to character roles that year itself. But after couple of months, he got stupendous hit in the form of Gabbar Singh movie. Jr.NTR who is currently enjoying great form, also had a lean period from Yamadonga to Temper.

If we compare Mahesh Babu’s career with other heroes, he gave just 2 flops after industry hit movie Srimanthudu. Writing him off for just two movies is sheer ignorance. Underestimating his stamina because of these one or two flops is ludicrous. Also,one more great thing about Mahesh Babu is his non controversial nature. In his entire career, he never attracted any controversy. He is always composed. When Pokiri was released and became sensational hit, he was asked if he is the number one hero way forward. His reply “Chiranjeevi was the last known number one” shows the Mahesh’s humbleness as well as maturity. Moreover, in his entire career, though some of his movies did not click, he never failed as actor. In fact in the flop like “Nijam“, his performance was top notch and fetched him a Nandi award.In his recent interview with Anupama Chopra, Mahesh himself agreed that his “downs” have always been “ups” for him.

What a super star like Mahesh Babu needs is just one movie with decent content, to make it “Evadu kodite dimma tirigi mind block avutundho”  kind of hit. After all, form is temporary but class is permanent. Be it Sachin Tendulkar or Mahesh Babu !