The 'Rockstar' of Tollywood: Devi Sri Prasad

 The 'Rockstar' of Tollywood: Devi Sri Prasad

"Varsham, Shankardada MBBS, Arya, Nuvvostanante Nennodantana, Bommarillu, Jalsa and Arya 2 happened, making Devi Sri the music wonder of Tollywood." 

Saumesh Thimbath

Some of the big hits of the year in South Indian industry had the name of Devi Sri Prasad written on it. Prabhas's Mirchi, Surya's Singham 2 (Yamadu 2 in Telugu) and Pawan Kalyan's Attarintiki Darredi raked in tons of money and it would be an understatement to say that the music by DSP (as Devi Sri Prasad is affectionately called by his fans) played an important role in it.

Devi Sri started his career at a tender age of seventeen in 1999 with a movie that was, interestingly, titled Devi. The soundtrack of Devi had compositions that drew heavily from Sanskrit hymns, which was the forte of masters, and this left many a gaping mouths when people knew it was a seventeen year old who had pulled this off. In another couple of years, Varsham, Shankardada MBBS, Arya, Nuvvostanante Nennodantana, Bommarillu, Jalsa and Arya 2 happened, making Devi Sri the music wonder of Tollywood. The background scores of Devi Sri pack a punch and made a fan out of Kamal Hassan, who invited him to score his mega-project Dasavatharam.

The music track of a movie, apart from the artistic contributions it make, is a mighty promotional tool. With music launches becoming as important as the movie release and with a potential to make or break a film, it does not take a leap of imagination to understand why many A-list stars like Mahesh Babu, Pawan Kalyan and Nagarjuna goes back to DSP. 

The next few months will be festive season for DSP fans, as two big films of his are to be released. The music albums of Mahesh Babu's 1-Nenokkadine and Ajith's Veeram are earning rave reviews. Both the movies are to be released on January 10 the coming year. And after 'Dinkachika' in Salman's Ready, DSP has composed another song, 'Naacho Re', for the actor in his upcoming Jai Ho. It appears, this Sankranthi and Pongal will be celebrated to the tunes of Devi Sri Prasad. 

A movie of many firsts – 1 Nenokkadine

A movie of many firsts – 1 Nenokkadine 

M K Sinu

Marketing of a film is the last thing on the minds of most Tollywood producers. While Bollywood has been making strides with innovative marketing strategies, Tollywood producers believe this function of product placement never existed, barring a few. Mahesh Babu’s 1- Nenokkadine is wiping the slate clean this time around in positioning and marketing the film. That is only one of the many firsts for the film which are listed below.

One - This is the first time a Production and Distribution Company from Mumbai (EROS Intl) is entering Tollywood to distribute the film worldwide, and that too at a whopping price. Two, the music launch function will be live streamed on several theatres across Andhra Pradesh. Three, an App to update wallpapers, news updates and song downloads is being prepared. Four, Devi Sri Prasad and Mahesh Babu are coming together for the first time for a movie. Five, Gautham – Mahesh’s son debuts in the film as child artiste. Six, a ‘1’-student contest for the first time ever across Andhra Pradesh targeting schools is planned, too. Guess next time round, Bollywood will take a leaf or two out of mana Telugu movie 1-Nenookadine for marketing ideas.

For those who came in late, 1-Nenookadine is a stylish action-thriller directed by Sukumar. Kriti Sanon plays the female lead and the cast include Nasser, Anu Haasan, Sayaji Shinde, Pradeep Rawat, Kelly Dorji and Posani Krishna Murali.