The Telugu cinema industry was initially studio-driven in the late 1940s and 1950s.
Actors like NTR and ANR used to work for studios such as Vauhini and Vijaya on a monthly salary basis. The producers who owned these studios essentially ruled the industry at that time.
Eventually, the scene began to change gradually. Though still producer-driven, actors started building their individual images and began working for remuneration rather than fixed salaries.
Despite the shift, they continued to respect producers because their careers had started with the producer as their employer.
This trend continued through the 1970s and early 1980s. During this period, directors also began gaining importance — filmmakers like Bapu, K. Balachander, Kodanda Rami Reddy, Dasari Narayana Rao, and Raghavendra Rao brought new stature to direction.
Producers began banking on combinations of director-hero-heroine to create buzz for their films. Ashwini Dutt, for example, was well-known for assembling the most commercially viable combinations.
By the late 1990s and early 2000s, commercialization in cinema had evolved to another level. Heroes slowly began asserting dominance by dictating their preferred combinations. This shift gave rise to a culture where directors began to sycophantically align with heroes for opportunities.
Producers, in turn, became more like financiers — responsible mainly for funding the project — and started losing influence over casting and crew choices.
Heroes began deciding everything like who the heroine would be, who the director was, and even the technicians. This reduced the producer's creative control.
Amidst all this, competition among producers intensified. By 2010 and later many affluent NRIs and individuals who made money through other means stepped into film production and began offering huge advance cheques to heroes just to lock their dates for upcoming films.
Encouraged by such trends, heroes inadvertently weakened the role of producers even further.
Some may wonder why producers would invest under such unfavorable conditions. The truth is, most producers don’t use their own money but they take loans from financiers and assume significant risk to run the show.
Eventually, heroes became so powerful that if they declared their own driver, makeup artist, or assistant as the producer, financiers would still fund the film based on the hero-director combination.
Technically, if heroes wanted to replace producers entirely, they could. But they don’t. Why would they do that when there are producers who are taking financial risks, pampering them, covering non-remuneration expenses like overseas trips for the hero’s family, etc.
Heroes give importance only to those producers who fulfill these expectations and pamper. So, in today’s ecosystem — driven by passion, competition, or the hope of hitting big profits like they may have in the past — producers have no choice but to accept this reality.
This is a completely hero-driven industry — specifically star heroes at the top of the ladder. For today’s producers, winning the hero’s heart and the hearts of their fans is mandatory.
Even the public should not lament saying, "So and so producer is in loss, and the hero didn’t respond." Because this ecosystem was built by the producers themselves, they now must live with it.
As Swami Vivekananda said, "You are the creator of your own destiny." Today’s producers have created this destiny for themselves. It’s their choice, and therefore, there should be neither complaint nor sympathy.
