Pawan Kalyan's Bollywood dream, hit or flop?

Tollywood superstar Pawan Kalyan will be making a somewhat tentative debut in Hindi cinema this Friday. Tentative because his Sardaar Gabbar Singh is only a dubbed version of the Telugu original.

It also appears to be a rip-off of the Salman Khan starrer Dabangg. And the similarity has not gone unnoticed by Dabangg producer Arbaaz Khan who has sent a legal notice to Pawan Kalyan, and the latter didn’t respond. A source close to Pawan meanwhile claims he has received no legal notice from Arbaaz.

Sardaar Gabbar Singh will release in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil this week. Trade pundit Taran Adarsh is positive about Pawan’s Hindi debut. He says “It will be interesting to see Pawan Kalyan’s Sardaar Gabbar Singh in Hindi. He’s a huge star in the South and enjoys an incredibly impressive fan following.”

“For me, as a viewer, I’d love to see him deliver lines in Hindi. Also, for an actor, it’s very important to broaden his horizons. With a Hindi release, you cater to an all-India audience at one go.”

Taran feels Baahubali broke the barriers of language between Hindi and its regional counterparts. “The phenomenal success of Baahubali has proved that the Hindi movie-going audience love to watch interesting movies. Pawan Kalyan is a fantastic actor and I genuinely hope he wins over the box office with this film.”

Adds trade insider Atul Mohan, “No harm in riding the tide. South stars like Dhanush and Prabhas have tasted success here. Eros is a big studio and their expertise will give a boost to SGS. Also this week is open. There are no major Hindi releases.”

However, senior film historian Bharathi S. Pradhan is not too sure if Sardaar Gabbar Singh can do the trick for Pawan in Bollywood, “It’s a dubbed film. It won’t amount to a debut. It’s like Prabhas didn’t ‘debut’ in Hindi films despite the success of Baahubali.”

Trade analyst Amod Mehra too dismisses SGS “This particular film does not seem the best film for him to make his Bollywood debut with. There are many reasons for this. First of all, the title is typically the kind we associate with dubbed films e.g. it has Sardar added to Gabbar. Secondly, we have already had one Akshay film titled Gabbar 3. There is very little awareness of the film. And ironically, it has a major opposition this week from another dub film, The Jungle Book.”

Producer-journalist-critic Pritish Nandy meanwhile feels Pawan Kalyan has a bright future in Bollywood. “Absolutely! I think we need to enlarge our pantheon of heroes in Bollywood. And the South guys are capable of breaking the barrier. Pawan Kalyan has a huge following. Bollywood will help him grow it.”

Why Hindi? Many wonder why PK decided to release SGS in Hindi

Director of Sardaar Gabbar Singh, K.S. Ravindran, had said that it was Pawan Kalyan’s idea to release the film’s Hindi version. “He believes that it’s a good film and that it would be a good idea to release it in Hindi as well,” the director had said.

• It is also rumoured that Pawan is eyeing a bigger role in politics, with the BJP.
• A Hindi version of Sardaar Gabbar Singh would be an ideal platform for pan-India recognition.
• Eros International, a big player in Bollywood, is the ideal Bollywood vehicle for SGS. However, there is hardly any publicity for the film in Hindi unlike Baahubali, which Dharma Productions had publicised extensively throughout the country.