Baradwaj Rangan and Vishal Menon speak about Prabhas, his three big-ticket announcements, and the changing landscape for stars from The South. Excerpts
VM: Yesterday, they announced Adipurush, another big Prabhas film, his third during the lockdown after Radhe Shyam and that film with Deepika Padukone. This one seems even bigger, that too in 3D, and it will be directed by Om Raut, who made Tanhaji. At a time when no one’s really sure about the future, Prabhas seems super confident announcing three major spectacle films that are tailor-made for theatres.
BR: Not just tailor-made for theatres, but (at least from the sense we are getting of these films) tailor-made for the pan-Indian audience, i.e. mass and class, East and West, South and North. This makes me wonder if Prabhas has finally managed what many Southern heroes (Chiranjeevi, Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth, Mammootty) tried to do and couldn’t, which is to make it big outside their comfort zones, i.e., across India. I have read reports that the Hindi version of Saaho was a bonafide hit, while the Telugu/Tamil versions were seen as under-performers.
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Baradwaj Rangan 
Macaulay Perapulla
August 20, 2020
And for a moment, I was wondering why do you emphasize the fact that Prabhas has PAN card number.
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H. Prasanna
August 20, 2020
Vishal Menon is my favorite FC reviewer, his pan-faced delivery of funny reviews for bad movies is so good. Combined with his knowledge of cinema, his unique takes/reviews/opinions exist in a space of their own (e.g., making metacinemas out of Amarkalam and Shylock). His review of Danny was a laugh riot. Vishal and Hriday should collaborate on sketches. VM’s comedy writing has so much more potential.
Here, he suggests ” ‘Salman Ka Bhai’ for Prabhas.” and wryly continues with “But before we get killed…”
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Honest Raj
August 20, 2020
It’s too early!
As for the other four, Chiranjeevi and Mammootty never had a spread-out fan base (like Kamal and Rajini) even in the South. The former’s market was restricted to AP and KA (he hardly had a market in TN & Kerala), while the latter never had a reach beyond Kerala and TN. Kamal was the first “legit” pan Indian superstar, IMO.
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Amit Joki
August 20, 2020
Dhanush is already India’s first legitimate PAN Indian star. Dhanush gave a 100+ crore box office hit which even many bonafide “Bollywood” actors hadn’t done at the time of Raanjhanaa’s release.
Shamitabh flopped due to Balki’s ridiculous indulgences. But even after that, Dhanush has an upcoming project with Anand L Rai where the omnipresent Akshay Kumar is relegated to a smaller role.
The Hindi Dubbed Maari 2 released by a relatively unknown channel – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbEV2n65qD8 – has 85 million views.
And Prabhas is far from being a bonafide PAN Indian actor. The only reason he’s getting the Bollywood heroines is because of the huge budget that the Telugu producers are willing to shell on his films. And to recover they are making it multi-lingual. And they sell because most of his projects are visual gimmickry with grandeur strewn all over the place. It is the novelty that is selling not him.
Take all that away and make simpler or garden-variety cinema and only then can you come to the judgement of whether he is even a contender for being considered a PAN Indian actor.
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ravenus1
August 20, 2020
I just hope that even if the Telugu style Masala movie is becoming a pan-India phenomenon, they are at least able to remove or reduce the massive doses of misogyny and sexual objectification that come with it. Not that Hindi cinema is free of that, but these guys crank up on that hugely. Most of the Hindi movies I avoided in recent times because I thought the content appeared risible were usually remakes of Telugu movies.
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Ghost Who Walks
August 20, 2020
I can’t help but feel that a lot of following Prabhas enjoys these days is a residue from Bahubali. Not just the north indian following but even tamil, kannada etc. I think making these pan-Indian movies as a career is not sustainable for him. As far as I know, he hasn’t dubbed in Bahubali and while it will work in a film or two, I think it will be a hindrance in the long run. On top of that, he is not exactly a great actor.
What is undeniable though, is that there is a vacuum in Bollywood. Except for Ranveer Singh to an extent, no one seems to be able handle the mass-masala zone very well.
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MANK
August 20, 2020
The press can get away with anything if they put a question mark at the end of the headline
(Courtesy: Sanju) 🙂
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Aman Basha
August 20, 2020
More than Prabhas, if there’s anyone who’s now pan India, it’s Rajamouli. Shankar has been popular earlier but his films and no other South filmmaker’s film afaik never really took off as the two Bahubalis did. There are enormous expectations from RRR, hope he justifies them.
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MANK
August 20, 2020
Apart from being Prabhas’ followup to the Bahubali series, The success of Saaho in hindi had a lot to do with the mega promotion unleashed by T-Series. And despite the fact that the film made money in Hindi version, the film didnt go down well with the audience. I dont think Prabhas’ subsequent films will have the same fanfare .
Btw, Adipurush sounds like a terrible title, something that is given to a badly dubbed film, and this for an adaptation of Ramayana,Horror! horror!
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Vikram s
August 20, 2020
Enjoyed reading it… Prabhas has a shelf of great sounding projects… Yash has KGF2 coming up… Lets see…
Hindi cinema having become biopic obsessed and become nri focused in a ‘i am too cool for school’ way has led to this vacuum and us ‘Madrasis’ will fill it
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tejas
August 20, 2020
“first legit PAN Indian star”
in a world where Kamal Hassan and Sridevi didn’t exist, maybe.
Even if you weren’t impressed by Kamal’s original Hindi films, or the success/failure of dubbed Tamil/Telugu films, Prabhas may be the first MALE pan-Indian star if you were to carry on a discussion.
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tejas
August 20, 2020
Oh, and I made the mistake of putting Kamal’s name first because I thought his first Hindi film was before Sri’s. But even her Hindi film career started before that of Kamal’s.
So then the question is – is the definition of pan-Indian limited to stars who make the same film in multiple languages in parallel? Or go from a smaller industry to a bigger one with larger and larger films?
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Honest Raj
August 20, 2020
What is undeniable though, is that there is a vacuum in Bollywood. Except for Ranveer Singh to an extent, no one seems to be able handle the mass-masala zone very well.
Fair point. Also given the Khans are already in their mid-50s, this really is the time (especially for actors who are in their 30s). I’d love to see someone like Dulquer Salman (I haven’t seen much of his work though) achieve that level of stardom.
And, yes, the promotions played a huge part in Bollywood’s newfound love for South Indian films. It’s thanks to KJo that a film like 2.0 went on to gross 600 c. Plus, the power of social media cannot be underestimated in today’s world. It’s obvious when you see someone like Vijay – whose stardom is virtually non-existent outside TN and KL until now – gearing up to establish himself in the Telugu and North Indian markets with his upcoming release.
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rsylviana
August 20, 2020
@tejas – THANK YOU! Even I kept thinking ‘but but Sridevi…’.
And “Adipurush” ?! Seriously ? They couldn’t come up with a better title at all ?!
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Honest Raj
August 20, 2020
But even her Hindi film career started before that of Kamal’s.
Her first film as a lead actress was a flop. Her career really took off only after Sadma, where as Kamal had his first hit in 1981 with Ek Duuje Ke Liye.
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Enigma
August 21, 2020
“Kamal was the first “legit” pan Indian superstar, IMO.“
@Honest Raj, that cracked me up. You mean the Kamal of the fake accent and extremely self-conscious (Hindi) performances fame? Good one mate! Kamal was the 80s Harish. If you don’t know who Harish is, you might want to look-up ‘Prem Qaidi’ on YouTube.
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kaizokukeshav
August 21, 2020
Prabhas has been the above-average hero since the beginning of his career. He was never a contender for superstar in Telugu, but the general idea with audience was – he has far more potential than what he does. This aspect was properly used by SSRajamouli in Chatrapathi and Bahubali. I think he is using this same approach in Hindi and will keep doing this for time being. A big star first has to become friendly to all kinds of audience. Saaho was made merely to prove the point that Bahubali was just not a Rajamouli’s success, and that was why he chose to do a movie with young and relatively new director. Appreciate Prabhas for expanding the zone and making a path (supporting make-in-India), at the same time attempting exciting (atleast on paper) kind of movies that caters to everyone. It will be awesome when India gets a James Bond or Lion King kind of movie.
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Aman Basha
August 21, 2020
Apart from Prabhas, I wish that Anushka Shetty too would have leveraged the success of Bahubali to do some big movies. Can you imagine what Bhansali could have done with someone of her star aura and screen presence? There aren’t many present Hindi actress with such an old star presence and more importantly, look appropriate wearing a sari.
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abishekspeare
August 21, 2020
I seem to be missing something here.
Known across the nation,has audiences throughout India and perhaps worldwide, has his fan base as well as general consumers, has been in the industry for a long time, has won a national award….. Isn’t BR India’s first legit pan indian star?
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Guru
August 21, 2020
There is a lot of politics involved to become a pan Indian star. First of all, the actor needs to have a big blockbuster hit in Hindi. And once you achieve it, you have to survive against the Bollywood mafias. They really don’t like anybody from outside outshining their own. This is a known secret, why do you think Kamal started focusing back in Tamil even after giving some huge hits in Hindi in 80s. If rumours are to be believed, AB felt insecure seeing the potential of KH. With SSR’s tragic death, looks like the scenario hasn’t changed one bit, but has aggravated lot more.
We might have odd 1 or 2 blockbusters from south stars here and there, but I don’t not believe anything more than that.
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Kailas
August 21, 2020
Absolutely….. Prabhas is India’s No. 1 SUPERSTAR, Rajamouli Sir is India’s No. 1 director
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MANK
August 21, 2020
Sridevi is undoubtedly the first Pan Indian star. At one point in her career she was the biggest female star in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi and was counted on par with the male superstars in these industries. Kamal did become a star with Maro charitra and Ek duje ke liye in those respective languages, but it was brief and he didn’t acquire Sridevi’s star power.
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rsylviana
August 21, 2020
Come to think of it, I do feel Vijay Deverakonda can do what Prabhas is doing now even though he doesn’t seem to be interested in masala films as such . I feel even Bollywood fans who have watched and liked Saaho can attribute their fondness for Prabhas partly to Baahubali / Rajamouli but VD’s craze has been hugely due to his own popularity. But he seems to be pretty rigid in his desire to do only Telugu films and had to be coerced by KJo to do the Puri Jagannath movie with Anannya. So I think we will need to wait to see if that film will make VD want to do more pan-Indian films.
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Aman Basha
August 21, 2020
And apart from Prabhas and the four you’ve mentioned, Nagarjuna too has had films in Hindi, Shiva, a supporting role in Khuda Gawah, Criminal, Drohi. Although he was more of what Dhanush is today, not exactly a star in the North by any measure.
Prior to Sridevi, even Vyjayanthimala was just as successful and popular in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi if I’m not wrong. And we seem to forget Jayaprada and Meenakshi Seshadri, although it might be considered that they were never as popular as Sridevi was.
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Ravi K
August 21, 2020
I think the closest thing to a pan-Indian star we have today is Madhavan. He is more of a star in Tamil than in Hindi, but he has been steadily working in both languages for the last 20 years or so. His Hindi films aren’t just remakes of Tamil films, or Tamil-Hindi bilinguals from South Indian directors and producers. There are plenty of direct Hindi films from the Hindi filmmakers, which indicates some level of acceptance from the Hindi film industry.
It’s too early to declare Prabhas a pan-Indian star, but I’m skeptical. I think Hindi audiences will come to his next films primarily if the films themselves seem interesting, rather than specifically for him. He will have to pretty much prove himself with each film all over again. With Telugu audiences he is currently a big enough star to be able to weather the occasional flop, but if “Adhipurush” and/or “Radhe Shyam” disappoint, I think that is it for career in Hindi.
How much of the Hindi media and audience chatter around “Bahubali” was about Prabhas, compared to the movie itself (story, production values, etc.) or Rajamouli as a director?
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Kaveri
August 21, 2020
Agree with Tejas here ““first legit PAN Indian star”
in a world where Kamal Hassan and Sridevi didn’t exist, maybe.”
Especially Sridevi !! I think she was the first PAN Indian star.
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Honest Raj
August 21, 2020
@Enigma: We’re talking about stars (not actors) here. Kamal had atleast one blockbuster each in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and Kannada at the age of 27. Although his career in Bollywood was short-lived, he was easily the most popular South Indian actor of his time in the north.
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KayKay
August 21, 2020
@Enigma…dude, c’mon it was the 80s. Mannered self conscious performances were de rigueur for that era.You’re saying his Bollywood contemporaries were poster children for subtlety? I give you Exhibit A: Rishi Kapoor
You’re a fan of Kamal, you’re NOT a fan of Kamal, that’s subjective. But looking at the facts:
If the definition of PAN INDIAN Star means you’re an established Big Kahuna in your Home State but then go on to deliver hits in Hindi Cinema, which guarantees a National outreach, then for that brief period in the early ’80s, Kamal definitely qualified.
1981: Had his 1st Hindi hit Ek Duuje Ke Liye but also had decent hits like Meendum Kokila, Ram Lakshman and Kadal Meengal in Tamil the same year
1982: Had a hit in Hindi in Sanam Teri Kasam while delivering a hit in Vaazhve Maayam and 2 SUPER Hits in Moondram Pirai and Sakalakala Vallavan in Tamil.
1983: Bilingual Hit in Tamil/Telugu for Sagara Sangamam/Salangai Oli and a Super Hit in Thoongathey Thambi Thoongathe. Sadma while a remake was still a critical and commercial hit in Hindi.
1984: Saagar was a hit in Hindi while Oru Kaidhiyin Diary and Kakki Sattai also rang up the box office in Tamil.
The fact that he couldn’t sustain it is another matter.
But I agree with others here to say my money is on the late, great Sri Devi as the Bona Fide Pan Indian Super Star. A certified commercial and critical darling in the South, then went up North and was the undisputed Box Office Queen for years.
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Alex John
August 21, 2020
I have seen many pointing out Sridevi as the first PAN Indian superstar.Going by that standard, I believe Vyjayantimala did enjoy almost similar clout and popularity in North and south way before Sridevi did, even if her appearances were not as linguistically diverse as the latter’s.Being a top star in both Hindi and Tamil industries in those days when Madras and Mumbai were the center of south and north cinema respectively easily puts her on the top of the ‘first PAN Indian star’ candidate list (I have read she and Dilip Kumar were hugely popular in Kerala back then).
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KayKay
August 21, 2020
As for my own 2 cents on Prabhas as a PAN Indian Star, I think that’s a reach.
Never heard of him until Baahubali.
It’s like saying Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey Jr. or Chris Evans are Global Superstars because of the success of the MCU (fact: Downey Jr’s 1st major post-Marvel movie Dolittle was one of the year’s biggest box-office turkeys). Or saying that Zoe Saldanha is the World’s Biggest Super Star because paint her green and she’s in the biggest box office hit in film history, paint her blue and she’s in the second biggest box office hit in film history.
Your name and star power alone needs to put bums on seats, not because of the big budget franchise/series you’re a part of.
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brangan
August 21, 2020
KayKay: Sorry to burst your bubble, but SAAGAR was a big flop 😦
The only place it was a hit was Madras’ Gaiety theatre, the one next to Casino. Our makkal treated it like a Kamal starrer and went in droves, especially after a ringing endorsement by K Balachander 😀
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KayKay
August 21, 2020
“Sorry to burst your bubble, but SAAGAR was a big flop”
Oh really? I was going by anecdotal evidence based on what my cousins in India were saying, one of them watched it like 3 times in the cinemas I think. How much of that is a testament to the movie’s popularity or Dimple Kapadia’s recalcitrant towel is still up for debate 🙂
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MANK
August 21, 2020
Yeah, Saagar was a big flop, also it took 3 years to get made. The experience soured Kamal on Hindi films and that’s when he decided to return to Tamil cinema for good. It was also a time when the underworld was taking hold of Bombay film industry and Kamal didn’t want to have any part of that. Also the big producers were turned off by his perceived arrogance, when he demanded to see the scripts before signing projects. He had rejected a lot of big banner films like Manmohan Desai’s Allah Rakha and Yash Chopra’s Mashaal.
BTW, both Kamal and Sridevi were big stars in Malayalam also. In fact Kamal became a star in Malayalam before he became one in Tamil. He had a superhit like chanakyan as late as 1989.
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MANK
August 21, 2020
And chanakyan was a full fledged Malayalam film and it happens to be his last film made exclusively in the language
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Satya
August 22, 2020
I recollect your interview with Venkatesh Maha where he said he imagined Prabhas playing Mahesh in UMUR. That he could visualise him. Sadly, that guy is whom I miss. His pre-Baahubali times would be missed.
This would sound super-cheesy, but Bujjigadu is that film which made me accept my awkward walking style. Prabhas did that for me. 🙂
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Enigma
August 22, 2020
@ Honest Raj and Kay Kay, you would agree that Ek Duje Ke Liye’s box office success was not due to Kamal’s star power. Apart from that one he had one more hit and nothing else. He was the second or at best joint lead in most of his other movies. It would be a stretch to call him a pan India star, at best people in the north knew who he was.
And Kay Kay, mate, I do agree that 80s was generally piss poor as far as mainstream Indian cinema was concerned but Kamal who was generally very good even in Tamil crap feats like Kaaki Sattai, was embarrassingly bad in his Hindi outings. Case in point, Saagar – a toe curlingly bad cringe worthy performance. Even he admitted in an interview that he should have done it differently. Maybe he was not comfortable with the language or he tried extra hard to win over the Hindi audience. Whatever it was, he was a disaster. Sridevi on the other hand was a true star. Though she did not appear in any Tamil film after she made it big in Bombay.
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Honest Raj
August 22, 2020
@Enigma: When Kamal won the National award for Moondram Pirai (the announcement coincided with the release of Saagara Sangamam), the ‘famous four’ of parallel cinema desperately wanted to work with him. However, a certain ‘A’-Lister actor was beginning to feel insecure that he ensured that a film, in which he co-starred with Kamal, was dropped. It’s all hearsay but I believe there’s an element of truth in it. 🙂
Sridevi wasn’t much of a self-made star. The Telugu filmmakers (Raghavendra Rao, Bapu, T. Rama Rao, Dasari, etc) with whom she was working at the time were highly instrumental in launching her in Bollywood (they helped Rajini as well). She was not even the original choice for the role in Sadma, which was supposed to be Dimple Kapadia’s comeback film. Of course, this is not to take anything away from her, but it seems very much a case of being at the right place at the right time.
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Aman Basha
August 22, 2020
No one has mentioned Divya Bharati, who in her unfortunately short career, started off in Telugu with back to back hits and soon became successful in Hindi, trying to juggle North and South. I can think of Bobbili Raja, Aseembly Rowdy and Mechanic Alludu in Telugu and Vishwatma, Deewana, Shola Aur Shabnam in Hindi. Has she done Tamil too? Then even she’d qualify as an pan India star.
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Odiyan hATER
August 22, 2020
HEY HEY WHAT ABT KENT SHUDDH PAAANI HEMAMALINI?
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Odiyan hATER
August 22, 2020
On a serious note: Going by the popularity of dubbed movies, Allu Arjun has to be the most accepted star across the country. Has a solid fan base in Telugu and is generally well liked across the country with a brief stint of superstardom in Kerala with Arya and Happy dubbed versions.
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Enigma
August 23, 2020
@Honest Raj, I don’t deny that Kamal is a great actor. Just that his Hindi performances were simply not natural enough. The ease with which he merged into characters, in Tamil films, was simply not there in his Hindi roles. He looked more like a South Indian guy trying hard to fit in. I would like to contrast this with the way in which Mohan Lal owned every scene in which he appeared in Company.
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Honest Raj
August 23, 2020
@Enigma: I repeat. We’re talking about the ‘star-value’ of Kamal. Around that time, even his Tamil films were more ‘generic’. In Bollywood, there are very few cult films from the 80s. It was a dull phase (although parallel cinema was thriving).
Realism is one of many aspects of acting. Apart from a Kokila and maybe a Aval Appaddithaan, I don’t think he delivered a restrained performance in any of the ‘big’ films upto that point.
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ravenus1
August 23, 2020
“Also the big producers were turned off by his perceived arrogance, when he demanded to see the scripts before signing projects. He had rejected a lot of big banner films like Manmohan Desai’s Allah Rakha and Yash Chopra’s Mashaal.”
@MANK: are you saying that he actually read the script of Geraftaar before he signed on for it? :p
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anonymousviolin20
September 23, 2022
After the success of Pushpa and the failure of Saaho and Radhe Shyam, looks like our pan Indian star might in fact be Allu Arjun.
The interesting thing about his stardom too is that it came over several years from playing dubbed movies in TV channels rather than in one fell swoop like with Prabhas and Baahubali.
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Madan
September 23, 2022
And what about Yash? Even with Allu Arjun, we are looking at one Pushpa. The KGF franchise has delivered two hits including the biggest hit of 2022. And KGF depends way more on Yash’s larger than life appeal than Baahubali (or RRR for that matter). The question now is whether the audience will follow along with Yash if he plays a different character from Rocky. I am leaning towards a ‘yes’ as long as this character is also from the same broad universe as Rocky – rough, rugged and almost vile in vocab. It makes me go ugh but I am least surprised, seeing the enduring popularity of WWE. Rocky is the Indian masala movie version of WWE. Yash can play a zillion versions of Rocky successfully as long as he plays them all with the same conviction.
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Severus Snape
October 2, 2022
Just saw Adipurush teaser and the animation looks awful, maybe better than Kochadaiiyaan. Given that this is just the teaser, I’m hoping against hope that they somehow make a watchable film out of this. I wonder why they decided to mo-cap the film. Prabhas seems to be lost after BB2; I hope Allu Arjun and Yash don’t follow the same route.
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Rocky
October 6, 2022
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