[intro]Karan Johar is trying to persuade Rajamouli to cast Hrithik Roshan and Akshay Kumar in place of Prabhas and Rana Daggubati respectively in the concluding part of “Bahubali”. Should Rajamouli fall for the temptation? No, says Sridhar Sattiraju – it is an opportunity to make a statement on behalf of the South film industry to the world.[/intro]
“Bahubali” team has already silenced all the critics (including self) with an unprecedented dream run at the box office. It shattered all the previous records held by non-Hindi films so far and got the world to take notice of a truly global blockbuster. According to last data, “Bahubali” Hindi version has already grossed Rs.100 crores (nett) which over-shadows all the films of the Khans and Kapoors. At an aggregate level, it is well on its way to cross Rs.500 crores world-wide. All these figures exclude other merchandising rights, satellite rights and collections that will ring in once the film gets released in markets like China and Japan. It has surprised everybody including the man who backed it in Hindi at the eleventh hour – Karan Johar.
An interesting development recently reported is that Karan Johar is now trying to persuade “Bahubali”s director Rajamouli to cast Hrithik Roshan and Akshay Kumar as the new Bahubali and Bhallala Deva in the sequel – “Bahubali – The Conclusion”. This is symptomatic of the obsession Bollywood has with hijacking any credit at the slightest opportunity from South film-makers. Here’s why Rajamouli should never succumb to the temptation of falling for this “honey trap”, if it were true.
[dropcap]O[/dropcap]ne, Rajamouli now needs no introduction in Bollywood or any other “PlanetWood” nor distributors like Karan Johar after the first part. “Bahubali” introduced his work and style of taking to the world at large and the Indian film-goer crowd on a scale that even the likes of Kamal Hassan, Rajinikanth weren’t able to get.
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]wo, the rustic charm and the imperfections of the story as presented in “The Beginning” are good enough. Now, they will get chiselled into better output in the next part – with all the feedback and mixed bag of reviews that Rajamouli must have absorbed so far once the shooting commences again in September.
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hree, the success of “Bahubali” has proved yet again that the South is no pushover for Bollywood in the globalization march of the film talent from India. Before Rajamouli, successive efforts made by makers like Shankar, Mani Ratnam, Murgadoss, Prabhu Deva, Surendar Reddy, Gautham Menon, Radhakrishna Jagarlamudi, Rajeev Menon, Hari, KV Anand and superstars like Chiranjeevi, Venkatesh, Vikram, Kamal Hassan, Rajinikanth, Siddharth, Ramcharan, Rana, Nagarjuna, etc. have helped push the door wide open for opportunities to reach out to Hindi audiences either with good remakes of original films in South or straight versions of films. A whole generation of script writers and directors have created blockbuster after blocbuster for the ruling Khans, Devgns and Kumars in the last decade. Almost three out of every five films released since 2000 which made it to Rs.100 crore club were all original South films. Before that, a whole generation of directors from K Balachander, K Viswanath, Bapu, K Raghavendra Rao, Dasari Narayana Rao, Priyadarshan, and makers like D.Ramanaidu, Krishna have made a mark in Bollywood with successful remakes of their films for the Hindi audience. Of course, for starters, the South-based heroines of every era have played their part in sizzling up the screens in the North. Come to think of it, mobility of talent is more widespread from South to North and was also encouraged to migrate from Mumbai to South. [pullquote position=”right”]“Bahubali” is a tipping point to take on the world and prove with more consistency that there’s more to Indian films than Bollywood’s Divas. That momentum must not be frittered away to massage the egos of some idiosyncratic producer or stars in Bollywood.[/pullquote]
[dropcap]F[/dropcap]our, the success of “Bahubali” only proves that when it comes to original and larger-than-life entertainment, South films lead from the front. Earlier, the trend was to sell out cheap to the makers of Bollywood when the producer of the original film in Telugu or Tamil or Malayalam was offered a few crores or so for the story sought to be re-made into Hindi. For instance, when Lawrence Raghavendra made a cult dance blockbuster called “Style” it rained money for the producer Lagadapati Sridhar. At that time, Hrithik’s father Rakesh Roshan approached the Telugu producers for selling the story rights for an unheard figure of Rs.1.5 crores because the Roshans believed that the plot is taillor-made for the dancing sensation that Hritik Roshan was. But Sridhar didn’t budge, he told them he wanted to make the film in all languages including Hindi. Almost seven years since “Style”, there is no talk of the film being remade into any language, forget Hindi. The audiences in Bollywood moved on to ABCD-style movies which is showing good franchisee potential. But Rajamouli showed he is made of different mettle when it comes to backing himself and launching his mega project on the world canvass.
[dropcap]F[/dropcap]ive, another trend that is fast bridging the gaps in acceptability of South heroes is the onslaught of satellite TV programming. Since you have to show movies in most Hindi channels for 24 hours a day, there will be at least 8 movies running every day in all Hindi channels. Because of this rush, most of them have started showing big hits of South film stars round the clock in dubbed versions. Airing this kind of programming has made South heroes like Chiranjeevi, Suriyaa, Vijay, Mahesh Babu, Vikram, Ravai Teja, NTR Jr. and Prabhas more and more acceptable in the North. Even Brahmanandam is now well known in the North because of dubbed Hindi versions. So, the problem of being anonymous is no longer an issue for aspiring film-makers who want to take on Bollywood. While Bollywood is globalized, some of the South film industries are more organized and professional. In terms of attracting global talent, Tamil film industry is one level above even Tollywood – almost all their ruling technicians and demi-gods of box office are rank outsiders – and there has been an ancient war for talent for decades. Tollywood is still growing out of the feudalistic background but is directionally getting better with more outsiders creating impact on celluloid – Nani, Siddharth, Sarvanand, etc. Mollywood is back in reckoning with remake rights for “Bangalore Days” and “Drusyam” sold for astronomical sums. So, Rajamouli shouldn’t stop backing his core team, and the two handsome, picture-perfect hulks Prabhas and Rana to re-ignite the magic in “Bahubali – The Conclusion”. There is no proof in holy hell that just because Hritihik Roshan and Akshay Kumar are the new adversaries in the sequel, it is going to collect some Rs.1000 crores. Almost everybody now knows the character, the basic plot and the nuanced emotions tied to each character. Let’s not spoil the fun before it actually gets to a feverish pitch in the second half.
[dropcap]L[/dropcap]astly, the argument for casting Hritik Roshan etc. is valid had the movie been still in the making. Now, it doesn’t matter. Had it been like “Drusyam” where the local actors needed to be roped in to suit the different sensibilities of each language, it would be different. After the first part, all those doubts are quelled as to whether we should have a well-oiled Greek God play the new Bahubali or whether we can keep the original Adonis. In the previous generation, there is an anecdote about the legendary director V Shantaram approaching late N T Rama Rao for playing the role of King Dushyant in a love sequence with Shakuntala. When NTR was reticent, he kept hiking the price for the former’s appearance as Dushyant. Finally, he realized that NTR wanted to act only in Telugu films because he believed he was the sole preserve of the Telugus. It happened the same again when B R Chopra approached NTR for playing Lord Krishna in “Mahabharat.” That was an earlier era – today’s generation are ambitious and audacious to take on the world stage. Rajamouli has given the world of South-based film-makers their best shot in decades to share the center stage with Bollywood, and even overtake it. (For the record, the Telugu and Tamil film industries together make twice as many films as Bollywood). “Bahubali” is a tipping point to take on the world and prove with more consistency that there’s more to Indian films than Bollywood’s Divas. That momentum must not be frittered away to massage the egos of some idiosyncratic producer or stars in Bollywood.
