Back to the roots for Telugu cinema

Alongside star-studded spectacle films, Telugu cinema is seeing charming small indies winning hearts

Cinema Bandi, streaming on Netflix, is the new Telugu film to have endeared movie buffs. With a tinge of surprise, debut director Praveen Kandregula acknowledges the appreciation the film has been getting from viewers in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, apart from Telangana (TS) and Andhra Pradesh (AP). In this indie film produced by Raj and DK, villagers in Gollapally village try to make a feature film when one of them chances upon a high-end camera. The village folks become the cast and crew and use indigenous props for filmmaking. Imagine a pushcart in place of a crane, and you get the drift. Their motive — to make a film that will fetch them enough money to solve power, water and infrastructure issues in the hamlet. The cheery film is as local as it can get and has a nearly unknown set of actors speaking Telugu laced with Kannada.