India is a country with high rural background with most of the population originating from villages. Agriculture has been the main occupation of many Indians even till date. The pristine nature of rural areas, pure food, organic living and natural atmosphere always brings us back to the roots. Village is a place for purity, standardized living, discipline and of course- hard work. The characters in villages are quite bashful, lovable, and even adorable to look at.
Tollywood well understands this fact and right from black and white era, many of the films featured village backdrop and actors like Sr.NTR and ANR featured in films where they were featured as the common village folk and the stories chosen were quite close to reality. The social struggles, economic differences, drama and everything relating to villages have made it an evergreen subject to look for. Directors like Adurthi Subbarao, Bapu, K.Vishwanath and many more made amazing films in village backdrop which are termed as classics even till date. The 80s filmmakers like Bharatiraja even made numerous films based on villages- their love stories, their folk culture, dance and music and of course : social evils as well.
90s witnessed an era where village backdrop movies got a commercial twist. Stars like Chiranjeevi , Venkatesh, Nagarjuna and Balakrishna were featured in the village good guy role at least more than once in their peak of their careers. The scene featuring the hero on a bullock cart, or a fun filled fight with sticks (karra samu) was mandatory for every commercial movie of the 90s.
But with the advent of Rayalaseema factionism and growing urban population, Tollywood edged more towards youthful love stories and violent flicks after 2000 era. But the topic of village backdrop films never got worn out. Films like Soggade Chinni Nayana and Srimanthudu are wonderful examples of village brilliance which doesn’t fade away. It is indeed brilliant to see Ram Charan and Sukumar team up for a village backdrop film Rangasthalam which features the hero not like invincible but as someone like guy next door!
Isn’t it delightful to see the female lead Samantha look quite the chirpy self and shedding off all the makeup, glamour and styling to suit so well for the role? The entire Telugu film fraternity and fans are eagerly hoping that Rangasthalam can bring back the glory of village movies once again to the film industry!
