In the past couple of years, films from down South have really worked their way up to the hearts of the Hindi-speaking public. Films like ‘Baahubali’, ‘RRR’, ‘Pushpa’, and ‘KGF’ have been pan-India hits and have really found an audience amidst Bollywood lovers.
When ‘KGF’ star Yash was asked why Hindi films don’t work very well down South while the reverse happens massively, Yash pointed out that it took time for Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films to make their mark up north.Â
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Filmfare quoted him saying:
“It’s not like that. Our films also never used to get this kind of reception, but what is happening from that part of the world, they have started playing dubbed versions here, people became familiar with the content of what we are creating. I think initially it started as a joke for entertainment because that show they used to treat it that way, but that is because of the kind of dubbing they used to do, nobody used to give importance to this space.”
He went on to add that now, the Hindi-speaking audience is more familiar with their way of storytelling – something that hasn’t happened overnight. He thanked filmmaker SS Rajamouli and Prabhas for paving the way.
“But what worked today is people got familiar with our way of storytelling, our cinema, so it has not happened overnight. That has been there for a few years and eventually, they started understanding the content, the expression of the direction, and everything. And then we got a straight instant connection with Baahubali, SS Rajamouli sir, Prabhas, they took that initiative followed by KGF – it also entered with a commercial angle.”
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Highlighting that the two cultures have their differences and at the end of the day, it’s all about relatability. He also claimed that there have been films from the north that have been massive hits down south, reported ETimes.
“In our culture, there are a lot of differences, and that should become our strengths rather than becoming our weaknesses. If they can spend the time and give us, do something relatable, in the end, it is all about relatability, there are lots of films from the North that are massive hits. We have watched a lot of films of Hindi stars, we all love them, but the market potential – have they lived up, penetrated it – definitely, there is a huge potential, what I feel. It isn’t that we don’t watch, we have been watching them but the thing is maybe they should see other aspects also other than just releasing the film – the way you collaborate with people, good distribution, like how we had Excel Entertainment here, they need to come with good production houses there – who can sell the movie and I would like to see that situation where film releases pan India and I hope that happens soon.”
Do you agree with what Yash has to say?