Besides shattering records, 'RRR' signals altered power equations in Tollywood

Images of the protagonists in the latest boxoffice super hit RRR tell a great story of friendship on the big screenIn real life too the Tollywood actors Jr NTR and Ram Charan are winning hearts for their friendship bordering on bromanceOn several occasions during the runup to the movies release and after that too the camaraderie between the two star actors scions of two of the most powerful Tollywood clans have touched a chord with the people It looks like their friendship spans several years at leastBut nothing could be farther from the truth A couple of years ago it would have been impossible to imagine seeing the two stars in the same frame let alone a threehourlong multistar blockbuster In fact Jr NTR confessed as much in some of his media interactionsIt was a trend that symptomised the deep divisions in Tollywood for many years Where stars refused to act in multistarrers for fear of being overshadowed or offending the sentiments of their fansIn recent years however the trend seems to be slowly but surely reversing A few years ago Seetamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu a family entertainer starring Venkatesh and Mahesh Babu became a blockbuster Then came Bahubali where SS Rajamouli brought Prabhas and Rana Dagubatti together to the big screen It was a casting coup of sorts for the director to get Rana play the antagonist In more recent times Bheemla Nayak had Pawan Kalyan facing off with Rana on screenTodays stars are more concerned about the story and their characterisation They believe in letting bygones be bygones a director said on the condition of anonymityFor generations the Telugu film industry has been dominated by clans headed by a fatherfigure who is himself a star Tollywood initially had stars like NT Rama Rao NTR and Akkineni Nageswara Rao ANR who amassed immense popularity and clout They were followed by Krishna and Krishnamraju who became icons in their own rights After that came Balakrishna Chiranjeevi Venkatesh and NagarjunaThe relations between the first generation stars could be described as frosty at best NT Rama Rao and ANR were best friends but fell apart later on Similarly NT Rama Rao and Krishna were not on the best of terms a senior film journalist recallsInterestingly most of the current crop of Tollywood stars hail from one or the other of these movie clansFor instance leading Telugu actor Balakrishna is NT Rama Raos son while NTR is his grandson and Balakrishnas nephew On the other hand Ram Charan is Chiranjeevis son Chiranjeevi heads the extended clan which includes the Allu family Between them this clan has as many as nine film stars This includes the likes of Chiranjeevis kid brother Pawan Kalyan and nephew Allu Arjun Similarly Prabhas is Krishnamrajus nephew and Rana is related to actors Venkatesh and Nagarjuna Nagarjunas sons Naga Chaitanya and Akhil are also stars in their own rightIn a further sign of the changing times actor Mahesh Babu participated in an episode of the Telugu version of Kaun Banega Crorepati hosted by NTR The two spent a lot of time in friendly conversation belying the old rivalries between their familiesSimilarly NTRs uncle and top actor Balakrishna hosted his toprated show NBK on Aha the OTT platform promoted by the Allu family who are closely related to ChiranjeeviThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever