How Memes Made Ee Nagaraniki Emaindi A Blockbuster

June 29 is a date Tharun Bhascker will never forget in his life. In 2018, two years after making a groundbreaking debut with Pelli Choopulu, his sophomore film, the much superior Ee Nagaraniki Emaindi was released in theatres amidst immense expectations. Somehow, it couldn’t recreate Pelli Choopulu’s magic at the box office, with the trade labeling it an underwhelming performer. Five years later, when the film was re-released on the same day earlier this week, people welcomed the film in packed theatres, which turned into podiums for the fans to dub iconic dialogues in unison. The fervent theatre reaction videos flooding my Twitter timeline are documenting a rare, extremely hopeful instance: a film eventually finding its tribe despite initial rejection. Earlier this year, Orange, a film that was considered a flop during its release in 2010, was also met with frenzied reactions during its re-release. But unlike Orange, which had a superstar with a massive fandom at its center, the love for ENE is much purer. It’s the genuine love for those characters, not necessarily the actors, that encouraged the youth to flock to the theatres and relish the hilarious and heartfelt buddy comedy with their ‘gang’. 

ENE’s fate didn’t change overnight, though. The film underwent a journey of its own in the past five years and finally rewrote its destiny. A major factor that helped the film reach a new audience, some of whom weren’t even aware of the film’s existence, is the meme culture built around the film.

The Telugu meme culture rests on the broad shoulders of two people: Brahmanandam and Sreenu Vaitla. Films directed by the latter, such as Sontham (2002), Venky (2003), Dhee (2007), Dubai Seenu (2007), Ready (2008), King (2008), Dookudu (2011) and Baadhshah (2013) are meme darlings, and the legendary Brahmanandam’s work needs no introduction. Ee Nagaraniki Emaindi’s success in the meme space is both surprising and completely understandable. Unlike the iconic scenes of Vaitla, which have a certain theatricality and goofiness about them, ENE’s humour is soaked in naturality and relatability. People enjoy Vaitla/Brahmanandam memes because of their amusing quality, while they appreciate ENE’s memes because they see a part of themselves and their friends in them.

The film, a semi-biographical account of Tharun’s life, is the story of four friends: the moody, heartbroken ‘Psycho’ Vivek, the effervescent and sharp-witted Kaushik, the practical Uppi and the career-driven but confused Karthik. These characters are written and portrayed with such charm, quirk and warmth that by the end of the film, one will either identify their friends in the four of them or crave to forge such friendships. Numerous scenes from the film that follow the gang’s mini misadventures, banters, antics and even simple reactions, have ended up becoming popular memes. And none of the glory is undeserving. Not a day goes by on Twitter and Instagram without coming across ENE memes being used to describe trending topics or as GIFs in conversations. ENE is omnipresent and rightly so.

Hari Vivek, a post-graduate student in the US who runs an Instagram meme page named Incognito Telugu, says that ENE’s meme popularity is a reflection of multiple factors, ranging from changing audience demography to the way the internet works and, of course, the sheer beauty of the writing and performances in the film. “I felt ENE was an urban version of Sreenu Vaitla comedy. For instance, some sequences from the film might not contribute to the story, but the writing and the play among the actors generate tons of fun. Be it the bar sequence or the scene where Vivek gets drunk and scolds Kaushik, or the lab scene, these scenes don’t necessarily take the story forward but are hilarious. Even when seen as isolated scenes, they are very funny. That’s the reason why they are so easily meme-able,” says Hari, whose page has around 92k followers.

Hari also attributes a practical factor that many might overlook when it comes to ENE’s popularity. “In 2018, the meme scene wasn’t about going to YouTube and taking a screenshot. We had pages on Facebook that provided meme templates, from which we’d download and make memes. They provided ENE templates and directly contributed to the film’s popularity. One of the reasons new films are unable to penetrate the meme space, like the 2000s films like Venky or Dubai Seenu, is because they are being released on streaming platforms, which prevent users from taking screenshots. The old films, which are available on YouTube, can be easily ‘memed’ because they are available for free on YouTube. For ENE, which also went to Netflix, this wasn’t a problem because the pages that created meme templates embraced it well,” Hari says.

Akhil Vadnala, a film student who kickstarted ‘The ENE Meme Project’ to create memes solely using the film’s dialogues and scenes, says he was smitten by the characters and humour when he saw the film. “Tharun Bhascker’s Pelli Choopulu is my favoutire film and I wanted to pursue filmmaking after seeing it. When Ee Nagaraniki Emaidi came out, I was in Warangal, and I didn’t have many friends back then. So, when I watched the film for the first time alone, I wished I had seen it with my friends," Akhil says. "I loved the film, but the idea of a meme page didn’t pop up instantly. It was only during the lockdown that I came across an account named 'The Hera Pheri Meme Project' and found it quite interesting. They would take a dialogue or scene from the film and create a situation around it to make it funny. I initially thought of doing something similar with Pelli Choopulu but I felt ENE was way more relatable to me and youngsters in general. It had so many situations that one could connect to. That’s how it started.” Akhil’s Instagram page now has more than 100k followers.

ENE is a film by the youth, of the youth, and for the youth. Hari rightly points out that one of the reasons ENE continues to find new takers each passing day, five years of its release, is because all the youngsters who are coming of age now are connecting to the film’s themes like heartbreak, friendship, and professional aspirations. These are things that a person might not have connected to as an 18-year-old, five years ago but understands now as a 23-year-old, having accumulated some life experiences.

“For the longest time, people wanted an extension of sorts to Happy Days, a film that ended when college life ended. ENE takes life forward, following youngsters after their college life as they take up their first jobs. All the characters in the film are in exactly that phase. They have the financial freedom to call the shots; they can go on a vacation if they want to. This is the phase my friends around me are also in right now, but not five years ago. That’s why I feel ENE became a comforting watch over the years,” Hari says, adding that he experienced this shift in perspective firsthand. “I was in 11th grade myself when the film came out. Although I was laughing during the FDFS, a friend of mine was connecting to it more than me. I didn’t have the experiences back then. Now, I connect to it deeply. Maybe ENE needed that time.”

What are your most used meme templates in the film? I ask both of them. “Wait, I need to look at my gallery,” Hari says. “You know Kaushik’s expression in the Gautham Menon scene, no? That’s so popular. Also, Kaushik’s dialogue, ‘Entra mee reckless behaviour? (What’s this reckless behaviour of yours?)’ after Vivek gets drunk and passes out. Kaushik's ‘Chi, em torture ra idhi? (What’s this torture?)’ and then there’s Vivek’s dialogue to Kaushik, ‘Neelo nannu choosukunna ra (I see myself in you)’ is also used a lot,” Hari says, laughing.

Abhinav Gomatam’s Kaushik is undoubtedly the darling of the film, delivering countless one-liners and witty retorts whenever he is on screen. Akhil says that most of his memes are also centered on Kaushik. “Abhinav anna shared my memes on his stories multiple times, and whenever he shares, the reach of the post tends to get a huge push. Most of my content is on him, and he has also been a big support,” Akhil shares. So did he go to the re-release with his friends? “Yes! Velli anni dialogues ki dubbing cheppa (I dubbed for all the dialogues),” says Akhil jokingly.

Like Akhil, many who love the film can recite the entire film without leaving out a single dialogue. While Tharun Bhascker and his team did a fabulous job in making a comforting, warm hug of a film, the memes it inspired continue to take the film forward and introduce it to newer audiences.