Recently, a Union Minister proposed 'Mahakaal Standard Time' for India. We hereby propose 'Tollywood Standard Time', an unprecedented yardstick to measure funny-to-frustrating delays in the awesome world of Telugu cinema. Other industries can only compete and lose in the measuring competition. For, nobody can beat Telugu filmmakers when it comes to incompetence.
Telugu cinema has been notorious for postponements since the days of Baahubali. Back then, Rajamouli was a pioneer and the delays were entirely understandable. He was figuring out things on the go. However, almost every single Prabhas movie since then has seen repeated postponements. The Raja Saab's delay was inexplicable; the film had no difficult scenes at all and yet they delayed it by two years. From Game Changer (even accounting for legal issues surrounding Indian 2) to Guntur Kaaram, from Devara to the Pushpa movies, they were all inordinately delayed.
This year, 'Tollywood Standard Time' has attained a whole new level, outcompeting its previous track record. Ram Charan's Peddi won't be released on April 30. The buzz is that, after two postponements, even Nani's The Paradise won't release on time (we know 'time' is an illusionary concept in Tollywood, but for want of a better word, we have to continue to use the word at the cost of offending our genius filmmakers). Vishwambhara, Swayambhu, Sambarala Yeti Gattu, G2, Dacoit, and many more have been delayed inordinately. Jai Hanuman took more than a year from its announcement just to commence its production. And almost every single director whose debut movie was a hit has been endlessly caught up in the spiral of delays.
Lately, it's dawning upon everyone that Tollywood's lack of skill is legendary. Some of them have started openly criticizing the lack of planning in Telugu cinema. Recently, BVS Ravi pointed it out in the context of praising Dhurandhar. 'Tollywood Standard Time' is our humble attempt at capturing the cosmic-level delays that happen in Tollywood.
