While it is still a dream for many of his contemporary actors to hit the million dollar mark, Nani has four films in the prestigious club – a feat that should make him very proud. What is more appreciable is that on three occasions Nani has achieved the feat with inexperienced directors. Barring Eega which had SS Rajamouli brand behind it, Bhale Bhale Magadivoi ( Maruthi), Nenu Local ( Trinadha Rao) and Ninnu Kori ( Siva Nirvana) are the three other films which coasted towards the million dollar mark purely on Nani’s brand image and crowd pulling capacity.
So far, thirty Telugu films have joined the million dollar club in overseas. Majority of these films benefited largely by the combination of star hero and top director. But, Nani has three films with relatively inexperienced directors in the club. Also, Nani now stands on par with current generation star heroes like NTR, and Pawan Kalyan who have four films each in the club. Only Mahesh Babu has 6 million dollar films. However, all these star heroes have done it with the help of A-list directors like Trivikram, Sukumar, Sreenu Vaitla, Koratala Siva etc who have a brand value in overseas.
Nani has also proved that he is a better crowd puller than some of the stars like Allu Arjun, Ram Charan and Naga Chaitanaya who are yet to create a brand value in overseas. While Allu Arjun has three films, Charan and Chaitanya has only one film each in the club. One more noticeable thing is that three out of Nani’s four films were made on a medium budget ( less than 20 Crores).
