Following Venu Yeldandi’s footsteps, comedian Dhanraj took a leap in the direction with Ramam Raghavam. Despite an interesting premise and Samuthirakani’s involvement, the film failed to open strong. The story centered around a troubled father-son relationship, had potential, but Dhanraj’s execution fell short, unable to deliver the gripping drama needed to make it impactful.
Similarly, Brahmaji’s Bapu, despite good pre-release promotions and early screenings, failed to attract audiences. While Balagam succeeded in blending fatherly sentiment with strong storytelling, Bapu lacked the emotional depth needed to make people invest in its tragic premise of a debt-ridden family hoping for an insurance payout.
Interestingly, both the films were compared to Balagam in some way or the other. However, the emotion that drove Balagam forward is completely missing in both Ramam Raghavam as well as Bapu. Additionally, one key takeaway from these failures is that audiences don’t pay for just sentiment and emotion—there needs to be strong storytelling or commercial appeal.
Moreover, the domination of the dubbed hits at the box office overshadowed these small Telugu films at the box office.
