Barring Prabhas (Kalki 2898 AD’ which rocked Hindi film box office), other Telugu stars like Ravi Teja, Nani, Ram Pothineni and Viswak Sen failed to draw crowds in North India. Now, industry bigwigs are banking on Telugu superstar Jr NTR to revive the waning interest of Telugu dubbed movies in North India. Apparently, NTR went all out to promote his upcoming film ‘Devara’ in Mumbai and other places and triggered necessary buzz among Hindi speaking viewers. His film will be distributed by noted distributor Anil Thadani and with an enviable cast of Saif Ali Khan, Janhvi Kapoor and is expected to break the jinx of Telugu films in North India.
‘Definitely, Jr NTR has gained pan India appeal after ‘RRR’ and now he is returning to Hindi film viewers with an action adventure and has triggered enough pre-release hype, “says producer Vishnu Induri who made Bollywood movies like ‘83’ and ‘Thalaivi’. “Devara is a larger-than-life movie which appeals to a larger section of audience besides boasts of Bollywood actors like Saif Ali Khan and Janhvi Kapoor who are familiar with Hindi viewers. It is a perfect mix of pan-India theme and casting and could strike a chord with masses across India,’ he adds.
However, recent releases like ‘Saripodhaa Sanivaaram’, ‘Double iSmart, 'Tiger Nageswara Rao’, ‘Skanda’, ‘Virupaksha’ and ‘Das Ki Damki’ and a few failed to click with Hindi film viewers and raising doubts about the waning popularity of dubbed Telugu films in Hindi belt. "Big actors like Nani, Ram Pothineni, and Ravi Teja spent some time in Mumbai and promoted their respective films but the audience thumbed it down since there was no novelty in their routine action movies and crashed,” says a Hindi film distributor, who claims that the makers have to spent Rs 4 crores each for promotion in Mumbai. “Producers tried their best but unfortunately things didn’t work out for them,” he adds.
He claims that a decent enough release in 100-odd theatres across Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, UP, and Bihar could help a film to mint money otherwise, it would be difficult to draw in Hindi-speaking viewers. “Honestlly, Telugu films that rocked the box office across India were ‘RRR’, ‘Pushpa’, and ‘Karthikeya 2’, he adds.
Sharing his viewpoint on poor show of Telugu films in Hindi-speaking states, ace director Prashanth Varma whose film ‘HanuMan’ wooed Hindi film viewers in big numbers, explains, “I don’t want to comment about other films, but honestly, we don’t know which film would work with Hindi audience. Mabe an interesting trailer or teaser could attract viewers. It is always a challenge to woo non-Telugu viewers and hence we need to keep trying to expand our viewership base,” he says and adds, ‘Fortunately, our socio-fantasy film ‘HanuMan’ did very well this year in many states in north India. Probably, the supernatural element was the USP and the aura around our mythological superhero and God, Lord Hanuman helped in garnering big collections across the world," he concludes.
