July 5, 2011

Which country will default next?

Blackrock - leader in ETFs - released a new sovereign risk index score that ranks 44 countries on potential default risk. At the bottom: Greece, Portugal, Venezuela, Egypt, Italy, Hungary...Spain (Vishawanathan Anand's favorite) @no.36. US @no.15. China@14. India@32. No.1 is Norway. Wondering why China is closer to US in default - the former's savings are the latter's debt. Scientific - not standard and poor.

New Newspaper

Hyderabad which got a new English daily "Indian Horizons" (quite below-par) will see a grander launch of another English Daily from a media house with some great talent - the team that built up DC and Hindu. Its launch is set for around July 15th. Watch this space for more.

180.

Saw Sidharth's "180" (released in Tamil and Telugu). Movie is a visual farce despite Nitya Menen, Priya Anand, San Francisco and all that. Sharath created new sounds of music and shows promise but Dir Jayendra dilutes emotions and plot with a tragedy that will not cut ice with today's generation. Sidharth is getting stuck as a non-alcoholic Devdas/Tragic Hero. Wake up Sid, times have changed.

David Ogilvy

David Ogilvy fans are celebrating his 100th birthday this week. Everything I know about Writing I learnt reading his books - "Autobiography", "Ogilvy on Advertising", "Confessions of an Advertising Man" and "The Unpublished Ogilvy". His autobiography and unpublished memos are the finest pieces of writing you can lay your hands on. Ogilvy will live on for thousands of years as long as English remains.

Vaadu Veedu

"Vaadu-Veedu" is mesmerising and entertaining film directed by Bala with a story set in village. He gets outstanding output from Aarya and Vishal - in the same way he did with Surya and Vikram in "Pithamagan". Concise Story-telling in its purest form and flawless characterisation (you will not forget even one character of 5 seconds)- Bala grips you every frame with metric tonnes of mass appeal dialogues

Badrinath

Badrinath" movie is one more of the silly season movies which tries to over-awe us with implausible plot, dizzy sets and Samurai stunts. Allu Arjun -the invincible warrior, protects Badrinath temple and serenades Tamanna (practically, top-less). In Devi 70mm, fans were debating whether they should mount a 150 kg flower gardland on their hero's cut-out after night show. That said it all. Ram Charan can relax.


Tollywood Vs. Bollywood

I would have consumed about 3500 Tollywood movies since childhood. That speaks why I get so imbecile sometimes. Here's a snapshot on what I feel is right comparison with Bollywood - the o- nly other film industry which we should look shoulder-to-shoulder. I am a big,fat,overgrown kid embracing Tollywood cinema and have no hesitation in extolling Tollywood till the cows come home. Here's my version of why Tollywood scores over Bollywood. 1.Tollywood makes more films than Bollywood.




2.Tollywood is a confluence of best practices of South from Kollywood, Malayalam and Kannada industries.



3. The percentage of non-Telugus watching Telugu movies has increased dramatically.



4.There was a time Tollywood used to copy Bollywood plots - the trend has reversed in last decade.



5. Tollywood has exported more Directors (K Raghavendra Rao, K Vishwanath, Bapu, Puri Jagannadh, K Murli Mohan Rao, Tatineni Rama Rao, Ramgopla Varma, EVV Satyanarayana etc.), more producers (DRamanaidu, Allu Arvind,RGV, etc.), more heroines, few heroes, singers, many character actors than any. Now it has exported musical talent which should tell how Telugu tunes are such a hit – MM Kreem, Devi Sri Prasad besides Kollywood legends like Ilaya Raja and AR Rehman whose global appeal grew because of the germination of Tollywood plots. The best technicians in the country could be working for Tollywood at some time.



6. More comedy fares that have come in the last twenty years are all re-hashed versions of some Tollywood Plot.



7. The turnaround times of Tollywood films beat anybody in the world- because of tighter controls imposed by Studios, production values, daily shooting costs, remuneration (which sometimes is getting out-of-hand because of Star tantrums), scripting and storyboard details – you have movies made in 3 days and in 30 days also. The work culture amongst Tollywood is amongst the best – only one Technicians’s strike in the last 25 years should speak volumes about that. Efficiency and vitality is a hallmark of Tollywood. It still encourages and attracts new talent –in production, technical and acting departments



8. The interplay amongst best talent’s induction in Tollywood is a known facet – Hariprasad Chaurasia scoring music solo, Sivamani’s introduction first in Telugu film, Rehman’s initial learnings crystallized by Tollywood’s music directors, Best graphics done in Tollywood films right from “Maaya bazaar” films.



9. Today’s top twitterati – Big B, Sallu, Aamir, Shahrukh, RGV, Hrithik, etc. all follow Tollywood plots and releases – there is top vying for marking lien on successful Telugu films.



10. Despite the extraordinary harvest of talent in Tollywood which comes from gritty producers, honest actors and passionate technicians from directors to script-writers to fight-masters and music directors and singers who push themselves – the volume is only now growing. This still can’t beat Bollywood because of the hype but if some aspects are taken care of - you have a winning formula for PE Investors as well.



11. Afterall, unlike Bollywood, Tollywood has never seen any unholy nexus between the mafia and film fraternity. There are only recent rumours about drug-trafficking but still is a far cry from other industries. Unlike Kollywood where few producers call the shots, Tollywood is still relatively better than other film industries – though one can say it is also oligopolistic.



12. Funds like Cinema capital, Banks like IDBI, ING Vysya, UCO Bank, IndusInd Bank, and players like Walt Disney, UTV Software have entered distribution and production in Tollywood indicating the growing size



13. In content from mythological enactments to realistic portrayals, Tollywood is where people turn for inspiration – the idea is originated here although full potential is not encashed here.



14. The number of studios, media houses, animation companies, recording studios, and the stream of technicians who work grueling schedules here alongwith a continuous re-tooling of inter-generational talent bank amongst the top families of Tollywood augurs well for the industry.



15. More non-Telugus in India and Diaspora outside India now watch Telugu films despite their limited-class appeal and non-serious content – and circulate the itunes and pirate the content because of the sheer quality.





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