Welcome to tollywood’s telugu movies history. Indian cinema has always been widely appreciated by the world audience for the kind of artwork rendered. Speaking of south Indian cinema Telugu movies is watched by a large section of the society. The Telugu film industry takes credit for producing the maximum number of movies in a given year. Talking of the origin of the Telugu movies it can be dated back to 1912 when the first silent movie was made by Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu along with his son R.S. Prakash. Little did the duo realize at that time that they were just paving a way to create an amazing saga of Telugu movies to be treasured by world audience for a long time.
The initial days of the telugu movies were more related to religious themes and stories with directors making movies like ‘Matsyavatara’, ‘Nandanar’, Gajendra Moksham’ etc just to name a few. These movies were shot with minimum technology and are a pleasure to watch even today without getting bored. The period between 1931 and 1947 was the era of the talkies with the first audible Telugu movies being made. “Bakta Prahalada”the first audile Telugu movie to be made was a sensational hit during those days making the audience crave for more such movies.
By late 1930s Telugu movies shifted interest from religion and mythology to social issues and ‘Prema Vijayam’ by Krithiventi Nageshwar Rao was released and much applauded by the audience. Around 96 Telugu movies were released during this period and more than 29 of them were made on issues relating to the society like dowry harassment and untouchables. The 1940s was an important period for the Telugu movies industry, which saw some distinct changes. With the British imposing certain strict rules, the filmstrip was reduced to 11,000 from the existent 20,000. This period also saw the evolution of independent studios with actors signing contracts with their producers. Another shift during this time was the themes of the movies moving to folk from social issues.
Come what may the telugu movies industry has been commercially consistent through the years and even today, they command a separate respect in the world stage. During recent times a number of Telugu movies like ‘Pokiri’, ‘Bommarillu’ to name a couple have been remade in other languages after seeing the remarkable response for the films. The beauty of the Telugu movies is such that these movies go on to become smashing hits even in the other languages due to their strong story line and commercial flavor.