While the trend of magazines is still pretty popular in the Hindi arena with the likes of Filmfare, Stardust, GQ, FHM, Elle, Vogue, Grazia and other entertainment as well as lifestyle magazine still doing the talking there, we have very few or no such magazines being targeted at Telugu audience except a couple originating from Hyderabad. Cut to the magazine covers, we have mostly sexy heroines adoring them or sometimes Bollywood stars, forget about South heroes.
It looks like back to back success of Telugu films at the Hindi box office is now making some of the popular magazines look at Telugu stars in a different way. Back in the 90s, we have “The Week” putting up Megastar Chiranjeevi on their cover, and now “India Today” has done a similar feat by putting up Allu Arjun.
Back then, we have Chiru put on the cover because the Megastar is charging more than Amitabh Bachhan for a movie. And now Allu Arjun adored it because they want to tell the whole of India how a content-rich film like Pushpa worked even without big promotions in the Hindi circles.
On the other hand, Provoke magazine has recently put up Nani as the cover boy, exploring the swag he is spreading around with his unkempt beard.
Similarly Peacock magazine got Mahesh Babu posing for their cover in his trademark style. And it looks like the status of Telugu stars is changed forever and more national-level magazines might put them up on their covers.
Tags Allu Arjun Mahesh Babu Nani Star Heroes