Telangana sentiment story

Sentiment is not new to Telugu people - let them be from Andhra, Telangana or Rayalaseema. Some of the blockbuster Tollywood movies are based on powerful sentiment drama. Even if sentiment is not core to the story, it will be there some where - before intermission or before climax. Movie feedback is also based on sentiment percentage. Basically, all this sentiment talk is to attract the women, who form the core audience for a movie success.

Of course, there are scores of sentiment based movies that ended in box office disaster - perhaps due to too much dose of sentiment unbearable to anyone

Now Andhra Pradesh is going to through a daily dose of sentiment. It is called Telangana sentiment. This sentiment is fundamentally based on the emotions - to instigate the feelings of one side of the people against the other side. This sentiment started well - appeared successful initially for the director called K Chandra Sekhar Rao simply known as KCR. Because, this is a new variety sentiment people have been seeing for couple of generations - it got very good box office collections.

After the first box office hit some three years ago, the director wanted to repeat the same sentiment story to the people for ever. The script did not change. Audience got bored. The director could not find any new script for the sentiment because he never had pulse of people. With repetition of similar slogan by other directors (and producers) eventually, it became less and less appealing to the audience. As a matter of fact audience got confused completely. In the process KCR lost his core audience - an indication that they have become less emotional to the same story. When Telangana - III released, it suffered huge losses and he ended with humiliation at the box office.

Fact - like in movies the same sentiment, however emotional and appealing - does not work for ever.

May be, a leaf from BJP is a good example. As long as BJP played mandir sentiment card - with nation's emotions they could not achieve their goal - that is forming a national government. But, even after ruling country for 5 years or more - mandir did not come-up. Instead, they appeared less communal and more progressive. But they keep coming up with the mandir sentiment - when the winds are blowing in the right direction. But, they won't attempt to create winds.

Lesson: KCR, don't play with sentiment and enact drama often. Talk what difference you would make to so called "your" people. Don't think Andhra people will run away. They will stay and you cannot beat them. They keep coming. It is a free India. Hence join them.

Else, KCR - another cliff will wait for you in 2009!

5th June 2008
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