His penchant for trying something new (Thikka?) continued with Gudumba Shankar (2004). At a time when fans were eager to see Pawan to bounce back with an action entertainer, Pawan came out with Gudumba shankar an out and out comedy entertainer for which he wrote screenplay as well. The movie did not match fans’ expectations. His subsequent movies Balu(2005) and Annavaram(2006) did average business while Bangaram(2006) failed to remain decent.

Jalsa which released in 2008 went on to become the biggest commercial blockbuster of the year, its first weekend business was so striking in USA that its numbers were charted on boxofficemojo.com and thus introduced that site to Telugu cine-goers. The openings of the movie promised a sure shot industry hit but his interest to voice out something about the society (THIKKA?) lead to the Naxal episode in the movie which did not go well with the common movie audience and hampered the range of the success to some extent. As a fan I feel very proud when Media considers a commercial blockbuster like Jalsa as a success of not Pawan Kalyan’s calibre.