With movies like RRR, Pushpa, and KGF 2 coming in, there has been a lot of conversation about the South film industry taking over Bollywood.
Nonetheless, content is the king, and the numbers South movies are generating in the Hindi market are exceptional. We decided to find out how Bollywood celebs are reacting to this, and here’s what they had to say:
1. Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Nawazuddin recently spoke about the things he would change in Bollywood. Talking about the fad of South films in Bollywood he said:
One mistake that happened is that we kept doing remakes of South films. The biggest problem here is with the writers and stories, we are not making originals at all, leaving everything up to the remakes. I think we should take a lesson from that mistake and start making original films. That would be better.
2. Salman Khan
Salman Khan opened up about how Bollywood films don’t work in the south, but their films are doing well here. He emphasised how Bollywood needs to focus on doing more heroic films and said:
I wonder why our films are not doing so well in the south. Their films are doing so well here. Heroism always works, as there is a kind of connection, and that’s very important for (cine-goers). We’ve had this format from Salim-Javed’s times, but now they (south Indian filmmakers) are taking it to the next level. Fan following there (south India) is huge, and now I am also working with Chiru Garu. They have a different style of films, and it is very nice. They make films on beautiful concepts. Even when they make small films, people go and see them.
3. Sanjay Dutt
Sanjay Dutt is now basking on the success of KGF 2, the actor talked about the larger-than-life heroism Bollywood films need and said:
I think the Hindi film industry has forgotten the larger-than-life heroism. But the Southern industries didn’t forget heroism. I’m not saying that slice-of-life films or rom-coms are bad. But why have we forgotten our audience from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Rajasthan who make up a large section of our audience? I hope that trend comes back in the Hindi film industry. Earlier we had individual producers and financiers which the corporatization of film studios has brought to an end. Corporatization is good but that shouldn’t interfere with our taste in movies.
4. Raveena Tandon
Raveena Tandon spoke about how South Indian films are rooted in Indian culture and said:
Somewhere in the 90s, till the time melodious music and stories came in, there was a lot of aping the West. They all wanted to become Hollywood, with choppers and Westernising. Somewhere, there was a loss of Indian culture in our movies. And the minute I used to go shooting down south, they had such a strong ethos about their culture and their customs and their rituals. The movies would revolve around that kind of story. Immediately, the masses would identify and they would be super-duper hits.
5. Akshay Kumar
Akshay emphasized the point of collaboration and how other film industries should collaborate too.
I don’t think (it’s a competition). It’s a collaboration rather than a competition. I don’t think we should take it as a competition. There is nothing to compete about. We all want to come on the big screen and make money out of it and make big, big films. So there is no point in competing about it, it should be a collaboration. And the collaboration should not end here only, it should go to other people, like from Hollywood, French films also, actors from there and anywhere. It should keep on expanding.
6. Ajay Devgn
Ajay Devgn recently landed himself in trouble when he said Hindi is our national language. The actor believes all the film industries are doing the same thing, as he said:
There’s nothing south or north. It’s the Indian film industry. They are also doing the same thing, we are also doing the same thing.
7. Gulshan Devaiah
Gulshan in an old interview spoke about working in the South film industry and said:
Although I watch films in Tamil, Kannada, and Telugu and even understand a few of these languages, I never had the inclination to become an actor in the south. I’ve been getting offers in the south, especially from the Telugu industry. Since 2011, I’ve been getting about four southern projects each year, but it has always been my dream to work in Hindi films. If I ever really look for a change, then I’d probably think of doing some interesting projects.
8. Kareena Kapoor
Kareena Kapoor talked about how language would be a barrier for her to work in the South films and said:
I truly respect all south films. They have great content, I respect and admire them. There are great actors from Pawan, Rajinikanth sir to Mammooty sir. There is so much great work being done in Telugu or Malayalam films. I don’t understand the language and so I feel the connection will not be there. That’s the only problem.
Read more: From SRK To Deepika, 10 Bollywood Celebs Who Run Their Own NGOs.