The Age of Heroes

Villains are sent flying through the air to pulsating guitar riffs.

Socio-economic problems are solved with sermonizing monologues.

You can rest assured that good shall prevail – since the protagonist can change the

world at will.

We are in the presence of the Telugu hero: a character that spills over from myth onto

the screen. The celluloid hero speaks like you and me and looks like us, but can

perform superhuman feats.

The Age of Heroes looks at the historical-cultural factors that have produced cult

heroes like N.T. Rama Rao, Chiranjeevi and Pawan Kalyan – and Vijayashanti, who

embodies the concept of the female hero.

With the growing popularity of Telugu films across the world, especially blockbusters

like Bahubali and RRR, Mukesh Manjunath’s book – which won the inaugural

HarperCollins-MAMI contest for writing on cinema – is a timely and fascinating study of

Telugu cinema, which entertains an audience close to 10 crore globally.