Burden of a legacy

His grandfathers, the late thespian Akkineni Nageswara Rao and prolific producer D Ramanaidu, were legends in their lifetime in the Telugu film industry, and for several decades, his father Nagarjuna, has been a superstar, so it was but natural that expectations would be high when Naga Chaitanya took his bow in cinema with the film Josh.

The young actor has since done a handful of films and is still in the process of finding his feet. After his first release, which created no ripples at the box-office, Naga Chaitanya opted to sign a film with the well-known Tamil director Gautam Vasudev Menon. The film, Ye Maaya Chesave, was also made simultaneously in Tamil as Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya. The film generated good business at the box-office. The young actor impressed the audiences with his casual acting style and dialogue delivery and it was clear that Tollywood had found another lover boy.

A slow start

Thanks to hits like Ye Maaya Chesave and 100% Love, Naga Chaitanya had picked up a fan following, especially among the gen-next, and this has played a role in salvaging some of his latter day films including Dhada. Perhaps the one film that sent his career plummeting several notches was Bejawada directed by Vivek Krishna. This film, which was based on bloody gang wars in Vijayawada, was not just a colossal flop, but was also slammed by critics. Although it had plenty of action sequences, fiery dialogues et al, the film suffered because of a poor storyline and screenplay.

Despite reeling under this failure, the young actor managed to recover quite a bit of lost ground with Tadakha, a remake of the Tamil hit Vettai, played by Arya. Hence it was a tall order for Naga Chaitanya to reprise it. With Tamanna as his heroine, he however managed to get things right and the film managed to attract audience attention.

His next release Manam is one film that would remain etched in the memory of Telugu fans for the simple reason that it was the swansong of one of Tollywood’s most adored stars, Akkineni Nageswara Rao, who breathed his last before the film released. It had three generations of Akkinenis in the cast, with Nageswara Rao, Nagarjuna and Naga Chaitanya all cast in pivotal roles with Naga Chaitanya in a double role. Nagarjuna’s and Amala’s younger son Akkineni Akhil too made a cameo appearance. The film drew comparisons with the Hindi classic Kal Aaj Aur Kal, which featured three generations of Kapoors. With the fans of all the three actors patronising Manam, it turned out to be a top box-office grosser.

Long way to go

Naga Chaitanya has done three films after this blockbuster film and among them was his home production Oka Laila Kosam, in which he essayed the role of a fun loving and light hearted character. The film became a hit, thanks to his chemistry with a former beauty queen, Pooja Hegde, lighting up the frames. Autonagar Surya, directed by Deva Katta, and his latest Dohchay, directed by Sudheer Varma, were again typical formula films. The former was a action-packed thriller in which Naga Chaitanya played a mechanic and the latter had a thread of comedy interwoven in the theme.

According to the grapevine, Naga Chaitanya and director Gautam Menon are likely to join forces once again for a new film. One serious handicap that this otherwise talented and sincere actor has not yet been able to conquer is his boyish looks which, at times, stand in the way of his enacting mature roles. Naga Chaitanya, however, has it in him to carry forward the illustrous legacy and though the competition is stiff, he should still be able to nose ahead provided he picks the right roles.