Gone are the days when South Indian films were restricted to only the southern audience and their stars, including directors and actors, were not known in the Hindi belt. South Indian movies are splashing big box office numbers all over India now and many actors from Tamil, Telugu and Kannada film industries are now pan-India stars. Many of them have occasionally even dabbled in Hindi cinema. Let us take at some of these South celebrities who have a pan-India following.
The first name that comes to mind is none other than SS Rajamouli, whose Baahubali franchise and then RRR made him a household name in almost every Indian home. Prabhas, who starred in Baahubali was mostly unknown outside the Telugu film industry until the film happened and made him a pan-India star overnight. Although he followed it up with two pan-Indian flops — Saaho and Radhe Shyam, he is all set to make a comeback with Aadipurush.
Rana Daggubatti got national fame from the movies. He had already worked in a few Hindi films like Department and Baby. Meanwhile, RRR made Junior NTR and Ram Charan famous in the northern belt. Ram Charan, though, had starred in a Hindi movie Zanjeer, which failed.
Another South Indian director who is famous all over the country is Shankar, best known for the Rajinikanth starrers Endhiran (Robot in Hindi) and 2.0. Even in the 90s, his Tamil movies like Jeans and Indian were released in Hindi as well. He also directed the Hindi movie Nayak, starring Anil Kapoor.
Kannada star Yash has taken the country by storm with his KGF franchise. KGF 2 is already creating records at the box office even as you read this. Similarly, Allu Arjun got a great pan-India response from Pushpa: The Rise. He recently became the first south Indian actor to have 15 million followers on Instagram.
Dhanush is also a well-known face in the Hindi belt owing to his performances in Hindi films like Ranjhaana, Shamitabh and Antrangi Re along with the Why this Kolaveri Di song that took the nation by storm.
Vijay Devarakonda is all set to make his Hindi debut with the movie Liger, which will be his first pan-India release.
Rashmika Mandanna, who became famous all over the country with Pushpa: The Rise, is all set for her Bollywood debut opposite Siddharth Malhotra in Mission Majnu. Web series like The Family Man brought Samantha Ruth Prabhu nation’s attention while Priyamani has had a role in Mani Ratnam’s Raavan.
Stars like Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan have been popular in the Hindi belt for a very long time. They have both acted in several Bollywood films, along with many of their Tamil and Telugu projects.
Rajinikanth has starred in Chaalbaaz and Hum among others, while Kamal Haasan starred in Ek Duje Ke Liye and Saagar among many others. They have both had pan-India Tamil releases like Sivaji: The Boss and Dasavatharam.
