Are South Stars Bailing Out Bollywood?

Historically, the Hindi film industry has been dominated by north Indian heroes and south Indian heroines. Now, a new trend is emerging. In the last three-four years it seems to be the hegemony of south films. Witness this, in the first four months of 2024, the traditional north Indian heroes Akshay Kumar, Hrithik Roshan, Ajay Devgn seem to have come a cropper going by the box office collections. Reportedly, total collection is less than Rs 800 crore. To make matters worse, Khans are conspicuous by their absence. Salman Khan’s ritual — Eid release was missing this season. Given this scenario, one is seeing the south stars coming to the rescue of Bollywood big time. For instance, Allu Arjun’s film Pushpa 2 is learnt to have got a commitment of Rs 1,000 crore before its release on August 15. It is expected to break all kinds of records. Then there is multi-starrer Kalki showing Amitabh Bachchan in a teaser promo. This movie which is a perfect example of cross-pollination of stars is speculated to garner Rs 100 crore on Day One of its release. Trade Analyst Girish Wankhede says, “The line up of South Indian films is a mix of class and mass. It has its focus on larger than life entertainment which works for celluloid. They are not spoilt for OTT choices and are more inclined to make mass entertainment.” The momentum in this year was started with Hanuman which scored big on the box office followed by Manjummel Boys and The Goat Life winning great critical acclaim. The upcoming slate looks super impressive with Kamal Haasan’s Indian 2 and Rajnikanths’s Vettaiyan. Besides, Devara, the movies in the pipelines are: Kanguva, Thangalaan and Mr Bachchan.