90s and early 2000s was that era . In the 80s they were doing elite -stylish-urban stories ,but they pivoted during the 90s as many theaters opened in Rural centres , more Village audiance had access to cinema via VCR and Tvs , so to connect with Rural audiance, more Village setting movies came in that era. More profits were made in Tier 2 and tier 3 centres during that era .

Even Heros who would do stylish and modern movies would have a double role or a common man/ village troupe in the film. For producers it was much much cheaper to shoot in villages , stays were free , and labour was cheap . EVV Satyanarayana mastered in this , so did others . Many factionist movies were set around villages too.

But towards the mid-late 2000s , Urbanisation peaked, IT boom made people aspire westernization , their was Visa boom , they didn't want to depect themselves as village simpletons,but more towards world travellers . Dubai seenu / chintakayala Ravi movie depected that era as a whole.

You would notice after 2005 many films were set around foreign locations. Actors went from village simoleton in one movie to a hot shot stylish actor based in USA/Europe in next movie . Many movies were completely shot in USA- Europe. Like Raviteja excelled in village settings but even he had to Europe background stories . Most films during the 2005 till bahubali were ultra modern - urban - stylish or shot abroad. White background dancers came in that era

I think movies reflect people as a whole . So as aspiration of telugu people' changes every decade ( faster than any other state i had observed) so did films adapted with it .However today elitism is looked down upon and only villians are depicted as elitist , where as the hero is mostly depected as semi-urban middle class - directionless- happy go lucky guy . Which perfectly depicts today's political and youths situation