Bollywood Banks on Tollywood Stars to Revive Box Office?

Bollywood has a dry spell this summer. With Salman giving the annual festive release a miss this Eid and latest releases—Maidaan and Bade Miyan Chote Miyan turning out to be duds at the box office, it won't be wrong to say that Bollywood is under a dry spell. The scene down South is not so bad, so to speak.

After Prashanth Varma’s socio-fantasy “HanuMan’ rocked the box office in North India this year, it appears Bollywood is banking on Telugu superstars like Prabhas (Kalki 2898AD), Allu Arjun(Pushpa 2), Jr NTR (Devara) and Ram Charan(Game Changer) to mint gold at the box office. “I agree that Bollywood is awaiting the release of a few Telugu movies, but I disagree with the notion that they are banking on Telugu stars,” says ace producer Vishnu Induri, who made Bollywood films like ‘83’ and ‘Thalaivi’. “Hindi film superstars rocked the box office last year and they reestablished their crowd-pulling prowess over others. Simply put, Bollywood has its strengths and weaknesses,” he adds.

However, he admits that ‘Pushpa The Rule’ is much-awaited since part 1 created ripples in the Hindi heartland. “Allu Arjun’s ‘Pushpa The Rule’ is undoubtedly a much-anticipated film among Hindi film audiences. The film has triggered buzz in the trade markets as well,” he adds. He also goes on to add that Prabhas's upcoming film ‘Kalki 2898 AD’ has also evoked interest in Bollywood. ”Prabhas has surely expanded his fan base among Hindi viewers over the years and naturally his upcoming sci-fi thriller is also hugely awaited," he adds.

While ‘HanuMan’ started the year 2024 with a bang for Telugu dubbed movies and fared well across India. Vishnu believes that its sequel ‘Jai Hanuman’ will have more traction with Hindi-speaking viewers. “HanuMan fared well considering its price and reach. The sequel will surely turn into a much-awaited movie since sequels have a big advantage and ride on big expectations. For instance, ‘KGF Chapter 2’ performed way better than Chapter 1,” he points out.

On Hindi distributor Anil Thadani parking himself in Hyderabad to buy more Telugu films and dub them into Hindi, he says “It is a good sign that Hindi distributors are showing interest in Telugu films and picking a few of them.”

However, a few Tollywood films like ‘Eagle,’ ‘Skanda’ and ‘Tiger’ failed to impress Hindi viewers. “It all depends on good content. Post-pandemic, Hindi film viewers have become content agnostic,” he concludes.