While nothing can beat the sheer number of viewers that the Telugu film industry attracts, Telugu web series, especially on platforms like YouTube, are seeing a steady rise in viewership numbers.
Over the past one year, these web series have been gaining popularity among urban youth, who are tired of cliches and are looking for new content.
Here are four Telugu web series that you should watch.
1. "Muddapappu Avakai" is said to be the first Telugu web series to hit Youtube with a proper budget and funded by a production house.
Released in November last year, the web series stars Niharika Konidela, the daughter of film actor Nagendra Babu. She's also the niece of Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi. It's about a couple that tries to fall in love with each other before they get into an arranged marriage.
Despite her star kid tag, Niharika has made her own name in the field. According to reports, they had planned a 12-episode series initially, but wrapped it up in five.
She has also starred in her Tollywood debut film "Oka Manasu" since then.
2. "Fun Bucket" complies short jokes and sketches in a larger episode.
Though it started off with 2-minute videos, the series has since released over 60 episodes and has also become longer in duration.
According to reports, the series has also gone overseas, with eateries in the Bay Area, San Francisco that generally play Bollywood songs, now screening the popular web-series each week.
Watch the latest episode here.
3. Jahnavi Dasetty, now more famously known as 'Mahathalli’, shot to fame on social media with the web-series 'Mahathalli-Mahanubhavudu,' which gave her the screen name. The plot revolves around a couple and satirizes many of the problems that contemporary relationships confront.
Starting off her career with acting in short films, she soon discovered that she wanted to be an entertainer.
“Ours is a conservative family; my parents were really angry with me for choosing this industry. Initially, there wasn’t much support. Over time, they saw my break-neck schedules, the hard work we put in to get each frame right. Now, they are happy with my progress,” she told The Hindu earlier this year.
The web series had nine short episodes, following which she now focuses on her own YouTube channel, which has over 1 lakh subscribers.
4. "Posh Poris" in the makers words are "The shenanigans of two roommates Maya & Hyndavi and their moocher friend Sesh in Hyderabad."
The plot is completely woman-centric, and while the series has been well received by some, it has also received a lot of criticism for being "too bold".
The series is the brainchild of Aparna Malladi and Gautami Challagulla.
“For long we’ve had female characters who are either heroic like the Vijaya Shanti kinds or those who need rescuing, so our challenge was to normalise the characters, make them real while ensuring there is no emasculation,” Gautami told the Deccan Chronicle.
Watch the trailer here.