Bollywood grooves to Tollywood tunes

salman khan

After borrowing our scripts, hiring our heroines and importing our directors, the Hindi film industry is now dancing to Tollywood's tunes, literally! Our filmy tracks, with their teen maar beats and rustic, mass lyrics was for long a hit with music lovers, not just in the country but also abroad, with listeners downloading our music just for its groovy beats. 

It's well known how "Dhinka Chinka" from Salman Khan's "Ready" had the nation tapping its feet. The song, a Bollywood-ized version of our very own "Ringa Ringa" from Allu Arjun's "Arya 2", was music composer Devi Sri Prasad's (DSP) claim to national fame. He is not alone in this department. All set to give him company is music director Chakri. The composer is all set to work in a Prakash Jha production soon.

And for those of you who didn't know, Anoop Rubens, a small-time Tollywood composer, was approached to do the re-recording for the Amitabh-starrer, "BBuddah... Hoga Tera Baap". So impressed was Big B, that he publicly praised Anoop's work.

This year may have brought back mana Tollywood music directors in national spotlight, but over the years, many of our musicians have been inspiring Bollywood. MM Keeravani has worked in 15 Hindi films including "Criminal", "Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin", "Sur: The Melody of Life", "Zakhm", "Saaya", "Jism", "Rog" and "Paheli".

And let's not forget the global appeal our dhinka chika beats seem to have. DSP's "Aa Ante Amalapuram", which is heard everywhere from UP and Bihar to Mumbai, is a hit in Europe too. We reported how Baba Sehghal was once surprised to hear the track being played at a night club in Amsterdam!

That's not all. Other mass hits like "Mayadaari Maissamma" and "Gajuvaka Pilla", apart from "Ringa Ringa" have become virals on the Web.

Audio hungama
Tollywood is one industry where the music of the film almost always decides its fate. Audio functions here are not just about launching the music of the film. Here in Tollywood-crazy Hyderabad, these launches are full-fledged filmi events with all the makings of a movie - stars gushing about each other, thousands of fans gathering to get a dekko of the stars and loads of tear-jerkers and laughs.

Whether the movie is a big budget flick or a small time one, the audio functions always end up being extravagant spectacles. In fact, Tollywoodwalas ensure that these music launches turn out to be one of the main attractions of the film's promotions, because the success of the music helps boost the film.

And if the movie happens to star a Tollywood biggie, the event is nothing short of long filmi award functions, complete with speeches, dances, mob of fans and lots of hungama. No where else in the country are audio functions such star-studeed, glitzy events.

The recently-held audio launch of the Mahesh Babu-starrer "Dookudu" and NTR Jr's "Oosaravelli" stand testimony to this trend. At both these functions, professional dance troupes performed to the film's tracks and a few funny stage acts by Tollywood comedians were also presented. A usually reclusive Mahesh Babu, even entertained the audience at the audio launch for hours together, to promote his film, only proving how important these functions are for a movie's success.

Even the makers of Tamil flicks who dub their movies in Telugu have discovered the magic mantra of grand audio launches. The music of Suriya's film "7am arivu" which is being dubbed here as "The 7th Sense" was launched in a grand event that had the biggest of Tollywood names as guests, from Ram Charan and Bunny to Allu Aravind, Rajamouli and VV Vinayak.