S.S. Rajamouli is one of the most lauded directors in the Telugu language film Industry, and there has been much anticipation regarding his upcoming feature, Eega. Rajamouli has to his credit the biggest grossing Telugu film ever,Magadheera, which also became a viral sensation, thanks in part to Twitch, from a brief clip of a Jeep jumping into a helicopter. The film was incredibly successful, and in all honesty, a really fun film, in spite of its epic length.
In addition to Magadheera, Rajamouli has numerous other successes to his credit. Prior to Magadheera, he directed a major hit titled Yamadonga, which was a so-called “socio-fantasy”. This is a very specific genre that deals with humans interfering with the business of the Hindu gods. Yamadonga starred Jr. NTR, the grandson of probably the most famous Telugu actor of Tollywood’s golden age, NTR. Prior to that film, he made Vikramarkudu, which starred mass film star Ravi Teja, and has subsequently been remade in Tamil as Siruthai and is soon to be remade in Hindi as Rowdy Rathore, starring Akshay Kumar and directed by Prabhu Deva. Last, but not least on my list, he directedChatrapati, which starred Telugu heartthrob Prabhas, and in which Prabhas fights off a shark with a knife. Nice.
Eega is a story about a man who is murdered and reincarnated as a housefly and who must avenge his death in his new avatar. Unveiling the plot in advance of a film is a very unusual move for an Indian film, but Rajamouli is on a different playing field than other Telugu directors, and so when asked, he gave this comment, “The hero dies after the first half-an-hour of the movie. The rest of the film is about how he, as ‘eega’, takes revenge on the villain. Nani, Samantha and Sudeep (Kannada actor) understood this critical subject well and gave a good performance.”
It all adds up to something new for Telugu cinema. The main character for the bulk of the film’s running time will be this housefly, “Eega” in Telugu, and it will be computer generated. In the recent past Indian CG has come a long way, and if these first look posters are to be trusted, I think we’ve got something to look forward to. Eega is due in theaters in late Spring/early Summer 2012.
