Filmmaker SS Rajamouli’s magnum opus Baahubali: The Beginning, which released in 2015, made Telugu actor Prabhas a pan-India star. The record-breaking success of the movie worldwide paved the way for more south films to be released in multiple languages including Hindi. Consequently, we recently saw pan-India blockbuster hits like Allu Arjun starrer Pushpa: The Rise, Ajith Kumar starrer Valimai, Thalapathy Vijay’s Beast and Prabhas starrer Radhe Shyam. The latest in the series are RRR starring Jr NTR and Ram Charan as well as Kannada star Yash’s KGF: Chapter 2, which have blockbuster hits.
SS Rajamouli’s period-drama RRR, which was released last month, has achieved mind boggling success and it has even broken the record of Baahubali in terms of box office collection. The film has already grossed over Rs 1000 crore worldwide and is still going strong.
Now, recently released, KGF: Chapter 2 has wreaked havoc at the box office. The Hindi version of KGF 2 has set a record by collecting over Rs 53.95 crore at the box office. It crossed the Rs 100 crore collection on the first day of its release.
With so many southern movies achieving great success at the pan-India level, it can be said that the Tollywood filmmakers have found the perfect formula for success.
Filmmaker SS Rajamouli and actor Prabhas deserve a lot of credit for this trend of pan-India movies. Prabhas can be called a trailblazer for being the first genuine pan-India actor. After the Baahubali series, Prabhas did Saaho and Radhe Shyam. While Saaho was a hit, Radhe Shyam did not do well at the box office. But this did not deter Prabhas from taking on big budget pan-India projects. He will soon be seen in Adipurush, Salaar and Project K. All of these movies are pan-India projects with prominent Bollywood actors playing key roles.
During an exclusive interview with DNA, Prabhas commented on the perceived rivalry between him and other emerging pan-India stars like Ram Charan and Yash.
Prabhas said, “Every business has competition but another part if you take…as I’ve said, now you will see a lot of Indian films, it was always there…Maine Pyaar Kiya my grandfather saw and he loved Salman Khan…so, it was always there. Now, the exposure is more.”
According to Prabhas, eventually more Indian films will be made now. “In fact, we are going to cross Indian cinema also I feel. So, more than rivalry, I feel we are already late to make Indian films and now we’ve started and it’s going well and we’re going to make lots of Indian films together from the North and South, ” Prabhas added.
The healthy competition between all these pan-India stars will greatly benefit Indian Cinema. If we go by Prabhas’ recent comments, moviegoers are in for a great time at the cinemas.
