In 2026, Tollywood’s online ecosystem turned especially merciless toward directors whose films fell short of expectations. Sometimes, they were trolled because their films were as absurd as they were feared to be.
Maruthi Dasari, Srikanth Odela, Harish Shankar and Aditya Haasan emerged as prime targets. They faced waves of memes, personal digs and coordinated fan backlash on X and other platforms.
Maruthi bore the brunt after The Raja Saab. Prabhas' fans, still smarting from earlier disappointments, mocked the film’s outdated comedy, weak second half and the director’s pre-release bravado.
Srikanth Odela faced similar fury with The Paradise. Despite the goodwill from Dasara, audiences and netizens hammered the film’s messy writing, excessive violence and logic gaps. Even Nani enjoyed some of the troll material!
Harish Shankar was not spared either. The underperformance of Pawan Kalyan's Ustaad Bhagat Singh angered the actor-politician's fans. Many asked him to gracefully retire. Yet, the filmmaker continued to speak tonnes of sentences in interviews.
Aditya Haasan’s theatrical debut EPIC - First Semester invited early trailer trolling for “cringe” and bold themes, followed by post-release mockery of its love story. The disaster left the Anand Deverakonda-Vaishnavi Chaitanya duo in the lurch.
To an extent, Buchi Babu Sana (Peddi) was called out over the logical leaps involving Ram Charan's character in the crossover sports action drama.
