Tollywood is becoming what Bollywood could have become

Allu Arjun, Samantha Akkineni, Dhanush, Rashmika Mandhana and Junior NTR- these are the names who have outshined Bollywood actors like Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and many more. Looking at these names, one can assume how big the south industry is. However, in what can be seen as a surprise for all the cinema-lovers, the Telugu industry is gradually becoming the pan-India industry, and Bollywood is far from touching it.

Bollywood collaborating with Tollywood

Ranveer Singh is collaborating with Tamil filmmaker Shankar for a remake of superstar Vikram’s ‘Anniyan’. Ajay Devgn and Alia Bhatt are starring in SS Rajamouli’s ‘RRR’, and even Shah Rukh Khan’s upcoming film is being directed by Tamil filmmaker Atlee, featuring Tamil & Telugu star Nayanthara featuring in a lead role. 

Samantha Akkineni needs no introduction as her exemplary work in ‘The Family Man’ on OTT walking shoulder-to-shoulder with Manoj Bajpayee was commendable.

Many are of the opinion that Bollywood is a bigger name because of its larger number of viewers. Vishnu Induri, the maker of ‘Thalaivii’, ’83’ and many other films in the South, stated, “Bollywood is considered big because of the celebrities and viewers for the Hindi films because there are more Hindi language speakers in the country. Otherwise, South films are also being made with the same methods and technology. Bollywood has a wider reach and audience, so it is considered as the bigger film industry when compared to other industries in our country”.

Over the past decade, films like ‘Manikarnika-The Queen of Jhansi’, ‘Kabir Singh’, ‘Ghajini’ and many more have displayed a solid association between the South film industries and Bollywood.

Moreover, filmmakers like K Vishwanath, K Raghavendra Rao, Mani Ratnam, Ram Gopal Varma, Priyadarshan, have contributed some of their best works to Hindi Cinema.

Telugu industry bigger than Bollywood industry 

To your surprise, hit films from the Telugu industry is fetching dubbing rights between Rs 30 to 50 crore. These are the rights to just dub the film in Hindi and release that version in the rest of India.

Film critic and trade analyst, Taran Adarsh feels that South industries are too big to ignore. He says, “I think Telugu is the bigger industry right now. The kind of films, budget, professionalism, and release patterns that they have, are impressive. The pan-India films that they plan are superb! Perhaps the image that Bollywood has had over the years makes us believe that it is big. I would like to correct the people who are associated with Indian cinema and say that is wrong to think of Bollywood as the biggest. Somewhere down the line, we should change our thought processes and realise that there are other industries too. It is unfair to South Indian cinema to keep them out and just say that Bollywood is the dominant industry. Not at all, I would say Telugu is ruling right now”.

While there is a popular perception that Bollywood is bigger, it’s not the former but regional cinema that is calling the shots in the Indian film industry. The latter, led by Telugu and Tamil movie industry, contributed 47 per cent to the Indian film industry’s overall revenues in 2019 while the former’s share was 40 per cent and total revenues of both stood at around $2.7 billion in FY 2018-2019 as per a report released at the FICCI Frames Summit in 2020.

Regional content is also expected to play a big role in the growth of online video services (OVS), a segment that’s estimated to grow at a CAGR of 30% during FY20-24 to reach $2.5 billion. OVS revenues were pegged at about $0.6 billion in FY19.

Bollywood filmmakers making remakes of south films 

Numerous South film remakes were announced in Bollywood in the first half of 2021. From Vikram Vedha to Soorari Pottru, existing South movies are soon to be remade by Bollywood filmmakers to capitalise on the immense popularity of the originals.

The Hindi remake of Tamil blockbuster ‘Vikram Vedha’ will see Hrithik Roshan and Saif Ali Khan as the protagonists and will supposedly release in September 2022. The protagonist was played by R Madhavan and Vijay Sethupathi in the original 2017 neo-noir crime thriller.

Suriya-starrer ‘Soorarai Pottru’ is also being remade, which will be directed by Sudha Kongara who helmed the original film in Tamil. Sanya Malhotra and Rajkummar Rao are all set to star in the Hindi remake of the Telugu blockbuster ‘Hit’. 

Ekta Kapoor will be producing the Hindi remake of the Kannada thriller ‘U-Turn,’ featuring ‘Jawaani Jaanemaan’ actor Alaya F in the lead role. Ajay Devgn and producer Dil Raju are collaborating for the Hindi remake of the Telugu film ‘Naandhi’.

KGF, Bahubali and now Pushpa crushing Bollywood

The success of movies like Baahubali, Robot, KGF and now Pushpa are concrete evidence of the popularity of the south-Indian industry. According to an estimate by the mint newspaper, South Indian films are set to dominate the Indian cinematic space in 2022. Estimates suggest that they will be taking up more than 50 per cent of total box-office collections.

Read more: From KGF to Pushpa, South Indian films are crushing Bollywood in all aspects

On one hand, Bollywood is going full woke and is busy disconnecting with the audience, South Indian movies are being made on archetypal storylines of India. They do not degrade the family system in the name of criticism.

Well, it is high time Bollywood start working on its creative aspects as the South Indian industry is all set to throw it out of the cinema world.