Pawan Kalyan's 'Tholi Prema' (1998) is considered a classic of sorts. The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu, six state Nandi Awards, and was featured in the Indian Panorama mainstream section at the 30th International Film Festival of India.
Yet, before its release, its distributors were not excited about it. When producer GVG Raju screened the Karunakaran directorial for distributors, they felt sleepy. "The buyers dozed off during the show. After the screening concluded, they asked the director if he didn't like women. The director was shocked. The buyers complained that not a single song featured a female voice," Editor Marthand K Venkatesh said in an interview.
'Tholi Prema' is not the only classic that was misunderstood before its release. The distributors of Mani Ratnam's 'Geethanjali', too, were sleepy during its screening. They literally exerted pressure on the film's producer to alter the climax. Mani Ratnam reacted violently to the suggestion. In one of the territories, the film had an alternative, happy climax exclusively shot for that market.
