The Sun rises in the South
THE SOUTHERN FILM INDUSTRY BEHEMOTH HAS BEEN ONE TO RECKON WITH FOR DECADES. BOLLYWOOD HAS FINALLY WOKEN UP TO ITS POTENTIAL AND POWER, EMBRACING NOT ONLY ITS BRILLIANT TECHNICIANS, BUT ALSO ITS QUALITY SCRIPTS AND SUPERSTARS. WITH A FINGER ON THE PULSE OF THE BURGEONING PHENOMENON OF GIVE AND TAKE BETWEEN THE TWO, WE TAP THIS TREND THAT HERALDS NEW BENCHMARKS OF CREATIVITY FOR BOTH BRANCHES OF INDIAN CINEMA IN THIS AGE OF COLLABORATION…
The winds of change are blowing and decidedly in a South-North direction. South Indian cinema, critically acclaimed and commercially viable, has become the talk of B-town. Arjun Reddy’s remake
Kabir Singh, directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga went onto become a blockbuster, raking in `370.91 crore and placing 9th in the list of Hindi films with highest domestic net collection. Baahubali director SS Rajamouli is now the most coveted filmmaker with him creating Indian cinema’s biggest ever filmic experience which made around `2,000 crore in total at the box office.
Baahubali: The Conclusion crossed a whopping `1,000 crore in collections and with such tremendous success behind him, the filmmaker’s next RRR is one of the country’s most awaited films. Even Bollywood’s golden girl Alia Bhatt couldn’t stay away from Telugu cinema’s magnetic effect as she will now be starring in RRR, thanks to Karan Johar’s recommendation. Despite having a rather insignificant part in it, Alia, who’s known for her meaty roles in Hindi, is doing the film. Such is the power of Rajamouli, who’s charmed Bollywood, especially Karan, who coproduced the Baahubali franchise. As for Kabir Singh, the superhit has pushed the Telugu industry further into the limelight.
Despite stirring up a huge controversy about consent, Sandeep Reddy’s film is the highest grossing Bollywood flick of 2019 and opened to `20.21 crore on the day of release, giving Shahid Kapoor his biggest opening ever. With these films creating a Telugu-Hindi synergy like never before, the south Indian film industry, especially Telugu and Tamil cinema are being sought after fervently by B-town.
REMAKE REJIG
While the much-awaited Dear Comrade didn’t do as well as expected, it had already caught the attention of filmmaker Karan Johar who shelled out a whopping `6 crore to secure the rights, which is the highest-ever amount for a South film. Telugu flicks are indisputably the flavour of the season with producers zealously rushing to buy their remake rights. Simmba, a remake of the Telugu film Temper, went on to give Ranveer Singh his biggest ever box office opening with the film reaching `350 crore in 40 days. Kollywood isn’t far behind with some of its films being picked by Hindi superstars to act in. Actor Akshay Kumar himself is doing three Bollywood flicks which are remakes of south films, including the Hindi version of Tamil film Katthi and Telugu flick Kanchana 2.
While not every remake is a hit, Baahubali and now Kabir Singh, have brought in a huge change, believes National award-winning film critic Baradwaj Rangan. “I don’t know if they’re making a lot of money at the box office, because we have the usual number of hits and underperformers. For instance, Dear Comrade didn’t do as well as expected. But when we talk about synergy, people opt for stories that have worked in other languages. Even when AVM and LV Prasad were making movies, if it was a success in Tamil, then it would be made in Telugu and Hindi and vice versa, with these three industries being the biggest mainstream ones with huge reach and stardom. People have always been interested in knowing both the Telugu and Tamil industry, but the profile of Telugu cinema has really been amped up post Baahubali. As for Kabir Singh, it became a monster success far exceeding Arjun Reddy’s gross.” With everybody wanting to replicate success, Rangan says, “While there are plenty of Malayalam films being made, nobody really wants to remake Kumbalangi Nights as that’s a film specifically rooted in a certain ethos. So, it may not make for a blockbuster success. If you remove the Malayalam element from it, it won’t make sense. But the Telugu and Tamil films have been mainly mainstream and you can transport them from Hyderabad to Mumbai without loss of the nativity factor.”
TOLLYWOOD DHAMAKA
With Telugu cinema making a colossal impact on the Indian film industry, popular Hindi actresses like Shraddha Kapoor too couldn’t stay away from T-Town and will be seen in Saaho with Prabhas. Southern directors too are in vogue in Hindi and have increasingly been making Hindi films — Krish directed Manikarnika, Prakash Kolemuvadi directed Judgemental Hai Kyaa and Sandeep Reddy directed Kabir Singh, Kangana’s south connection’s only gotten stronger now that she’s doing the Jayalaliltha biopic Thalaivi (in Tamil), directed by AL Vijay.
were remaking their Tamil films into Hindi.
Main Chup Rahungi (1961) a remake of the Tamil blockbuster Kalathur Kannamma, Main Bhi Ladki Hoon (1964) remade from the Tamil Naanum Oru Pen and Laadla (1964) remake of Annnai.
By the 1970s the trend of remaking of Tamil films in Hindi lost steam. During the reign of Rajesh Khanna in Bollywood remakes faded away. But were soon revived by Jeetendra who needed to revive his career after Khanna’s 5-year reign. Telugu remakes proved a blessing for Jeetendra. He turned producer and bought remake rights of every Telugu hit he could lay Pehlwan
In the last decade, Bollywood has remade 38 South films, out of 18 have been hits with Baaghi 2 (remake of Telugu film Kshanam), Simmba and Bodyguard topping the box office charts. Giving a commercial perspective to the phenomenon, Kannada filmmaker Hemanth Rao, who co-wrote 2018’s superhit Andhadhun, says, “The reality is that South films now rake in big money — from Baahubali to KGF and films of superstars down south. A lot of this newfound interest
is dictated by commerce.
RAHMAN MANIA
If you notice the recent films from the South, they’ve done incredibly well in the North and have shown investors and film people that there’s a crazy huge market here. Bollywood always knew that we were making films, but it’s just that the numbers are now his hands on.
The gambit worked. It revived his career. Jeetendra recalls how he relentlessly shot these Hindi remakes of Telugu films in Hyderabad. He was so much out of his home in Mumbai that his wife and children had to fly into Hyderabad to meet him.
If the credit for bringing Telugu cinema into Bollywood in such a major way in the 1970s goes to Jeetendra, in the 1980s and 90s it was producer Boney Kapoor who leaned heavily on Telugu cinema for his Bollywood palate. Between 1980 and 2015 Boney bought the remake rights of as many as 15 Telugu hits. Among his successful remakes were WohSaat Din (the film such that they can’t ignore them anymore.”
With Kabir Singh turning out to be a blockbuster that’s given its lead actor his hugest hit, award-winning journalist and author Yasser Usman is in awe of the fact that the film managed to do this. “It wasn’t promoted much, there was no hype, but it came out and did so well. Even the divided opinions about the film worked for it. It made such an impact that Karan went and bought the rights of Dear Comrade. I do not agree with the protagonist’s actions, but you can’t take away the fact that it’s an extremely well-made film with a wellwritten script and a great love story and that’s what Bollywood is lacking now,” he adds.
The writer credits the entire south phenomenon to musical maestro AR Rahman, who created a wave with his magical tunes in the 90s in Bollywood. “Before the stories and films, it was the music that came in — from Roja to Bombay. These films were dubbed in Hindi but had the same music, so I’d credit Rahman for kicking off the southern wave in B-Town. Even before we’ve had dubbed films, but it never reached the quality or acceptance in the north as it has in the post-Rahman era. Also, the studio system was not so prevalent back then, but today you have production houses and producers like Karan Johar distributing southern films. Baahubali has been a gamechanger,” says the writer, who believes that technically, the south industry is way better than Bollywood. “Whether it was Makkhi, or Hindustani or Shankar’s Robot 2, quality-wise these films were stronger. When SRK tried Ra.one, it failed badly, Bollywood is yet to reach the standards of the south. Also, south films are not invested in the story department which Bollywood is not doing.
And it’s an easy thing to copy and remake south films — if you buy the rights, you can adapt the screenplay and dialogues too. Apart from Sanjay Bhansali, I don’t think Hindi films can match up to the technique of south films,” he states.
A still from
that launched Boney’s brother Anil Kapoor as a leading man in Hindi cinema), Judaai (Boney’s wife the legendary Sridevi’s last film before marriage) and Tevar (a remake of Mahesh Babu’s Telugu blockbuster Okkadu featuring Boney’s son Arjun Kapoor). Now, Boney has moved in the other direction: he has remade the influential Hindi hit Pink into Tamil.
Not all of Boney’s Telugu remakes worked. He admitted to me that the remake must make cultural changes to be palatable in the Hindi belt. Blind remakes don’t work. We hope Karan Johar remembers to adapt Dear Comrade to an pan-India milieu . SOUTH STARS RULE
With the southern factor setting the BO on fire, gone are those days when south stars were treated like second cousins by the Bollywood fraternity. They’ve gained humungous popularity in the North and Bollywood biggies are often seen hobnobbing with their South Indian counterparts. Prabhas’ Saaho is releasing in Hindi too and Vijay Devarakonda was even offered the lead roles in the Hindi remakes of his films. Kannada superstar Sudeep, is one of those actors from the south who seems to have blown some B-towners away with his talent. Not only is he playing the antagonist in Dabangg opposite Salman Khan, his film Pailwaan is releasing in Hindi too. But he doesn’t think the blame should be placed on Bollywood for not recognising south talent earlier. “It’s not that they haven’t taken us seriously. We ourselves haven’t taken ourselves seriously. Unless and until you knock on the door, how will they open it? If you have a complex that they won’t open the door, then how can you blame them? Wherever you want to go, you need to put in an effort to get there. You need to dream big and reach out to them, the place won’t reach you. If you have it in you, people will appreciate you. It’s all about you and your belief, it’s all about how confident you are, your presentation and how you educate yourself. Bollywood also has now started taking the South seriously. They realise our market is everywhere and it’s only a matter of time before this happened. Time changes every thinking. If you’ve not updated yourself, then I’m sorry for you,” says the actor, who was recently seen hanging out with actor Ajay Devgn.
MOLLYWOOD IMPORT
Malayalam actor Dulquer Salman is another favourite amongst many movie lovers irrespective of geography and will soon be seen opposite Sonam Kapoor in The Zoya Factor in his Bollywood debut. Tevar
(a remake of Mahesh Babu’s Telugu blockbuster Okkadu featuring Boney’s son Arjun Kapoor)