At a time when south Indian films are gaining more attention than ever before, a new term — ‘pan-Indian’ — is being used to refer to films in regional languages that are emerging as superhits as a result of being watched by masses from across the country.

While many think that describing a film as pan-Indian is actually a compliment, actor Siddharth, who has worked in films in over five languages, including Hindi, and who enjoys a huge fan following in two of the most popular film industries of the country, believes otherwise.

Draw his attention to how south Indian films are now ruling the roost and ask him if times have changed from when people looking to get into Bollywood would first make their mark in regional films, the actor shoots back, “These are given only by the people in the middle who are watching the game. Almost 15 or 16 years ago, I gave interviews. In those days, the hot topic was cross-over cinema. When will we go to Hollywood?

“At that time, I said in a Hindi interview, ‘why do you want to cross over the seas? Why don’t you want to cross over to inside India? Why don’t you first start watching films made in other languages? Why don’t you first start considering Indian films as Indian films?’ There’s no wood, no regional. As a result of that, they have come up with this comedy called pan-Indian.

“Pan-Indian is a very disrespectful word because the term is being used to describe that a regional film means there is something called an Indian film, which comes from Bollywood. That’s what it means. It means that you don’t have to qualify Hindi films with any word, but if it is coming from regional cinema, they are not just regional films but they are pan-Indian. That is nonsense! All films are Indian films.

The actor adds: “Is that to say that there was no pan-Indian cinema 15 years back? Indian cinema is Indian cinema. My boss Mani Ratnam made a film called ‘Roja’, which everybody in India saw. Nobody said it was a pan-Indian film.

“Today, my friends in Bengaluru have made ‘KGF’. I am so proud of them. ‘KGF’ is an Indian film. It is a Kannada film. You can watch it in any language you want, but it is an Indian film made by the Kannada industry.

“The term pan-India should be removed, if you ask me. It should just be called an Indian film. Otherwise, refer to it in the language it was made in.”

Siddharth goes on to say: “As a Tamil actor who has found stardom in Tamil and Telugu cinema and who comes to Bollywood, they call me south actor. Not even south Indian actor. People who are in the middle, they are the ones who are coining all these terms. So, if you ask me about the tables turning, the best technicians will make the best films.

“They will make it in whichever language they are called to make it. The great technicians of Chennai have worked in Hindi cinema. The great producers of Telugu cinema have worked in Hindi cinema. Today, the great Kannadigas of ‘KGF’ are working in Hindi cinema. If the content is good, you don’t have to give it a name. It will go everywhere.”

Actor Siddharth, who’s hugely popular among both Tamil- and Telugu-speaking audiences, and is also known to be a critic of the BJP, lashed out at trolls on Tuesday, saying that people who repeatedly abused his mother out of hatred for him were the ones who were pretending to respect goddesses.

Taking to Twitter, Siddharth said: “Disturbing realisation. The people who have repeatedly abused my mother out of hatred for me … pretend to respect Sita Maiyya, Durga Mata and Maa Santoshi. My country, my religion, my culture … All hijacked by a bunch of pitiful, woman-hating cowards. Poor #Mother India.”

The actor, who is known to voice his thoughts boldly and stand by them, has often been the target of attacks on social media. But that hasn’t stopped him from expressing his thoughts without fear.

On another note, earlier in the day, the actor offered comforting words to one of South India’s leading music directors, Devi Sri Prasad, who was remembering his dad who had passed away six years ago.

Responding to a tweet put out by the music director, Siddharth said: “Love you Devi. Can’t believe it’s already 6 years. Wish uncle was with us today … I know how proud he must be, smiling at his amazing boy from the heavens above. Hugs, love and prayers brother.”

Actor Siddharth, who recently appeared in the movie ‘Maha Samudram’ alongside Sharwanand, had written a series of tweets on Thursday questioning the government on low cap of movie ticket prices.

Siddharth suggested the Andhra Pradesh government, to calculate the average house rent and per capita consumer spending on durables, and then decide the prices of movie tickets. He also brings in, a simple example of how much money he had spent on watching a movie, when he watched a movie abroad, for the first time.

“The first time I saw a movie abroad was 25 years ago. I used my student I-card and saw a movie for 8 dollars. That was Rs. 200 at the time. Today our films match all countries in technology, talent and employment…. #SaveCinema”, Siddharth’s Tweet reads.

Going on, about the same issue, the actor wrote: “A film’s budget and scale is not decided by the consumer… It is decided by the creator and the investor. No individual has the right to decide how much anyone earns from cinema.”

“Why is it that the film industry has to constantly be seen as a problem area by governments intent on telling them how to recover their investment?” the Rang De Basanti’ star questioned.

Siddharth opined that the Government Orders for ticket rates and limits on the number of shows, which comes under the violation of the MRTP Act. “Give cinema and cinema halls a chance to survive. Please,” he appealed.

Siddharth is one among the very few actors who have taken a stand against movie ticket price issues in Andhra Pradesh. Pawan Kalyan, Nani, Chiranjeevi, and Director Raghavendra Rao are the celebrities who have openly given their statements on the issue to date.

Talented actor Siddharth has been away from Telugu cinema from the last 6 years. He tasted massive hits during the early days of his career in Tollywood but he later found his own happy space in Tamil cinema. His Tollywood fans kept on requesting his comeback and Siddharth made some sensational announcements recently about his comeback. The actor is returning back to Tollywood with a straight Telugu film next year.

Siddharth said that he is in talks for a concept based film that will make all his Tollywood fans proud. The actor’s last film Gruham did decent business in Telugu and Siddharth even announced a sequel for the horror thriller. Siddharth is currently working on a bunch of interesting projects and he would make things official soon.

Actor Siddharth came down heavily on Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli for his “leave India” comments on a fan. It is known news that a cricket fan said to Kohli, “I enjoy watching English and Australian batsmen more than these Indian.” He also added, “Kohli is Over-rated batsman. Personally, I see nothing special in his batting.” Irked with these comments, Kohli replied “”Okay, I don’t think you should live in India then…you should go and live somewhere else, no? Why are you living in our country and loving other countries?”

Actor Siddarth came down heavily on Kohli and asked him to teach himself to think properly. He tweeted, “If you want to remain #KingKohli it may be time to teach yourself to think ‘What would Dravid say?’ before speaking in future. What an idiotic set of words to come from an India captain!”. He also added, how people troll about movies and how they respond on such tweets. He tweeted, “I don’t watch these Indian Movies. They’re so lame. I like watching Hollywood films. I only watch Bollywood. These SouthFilms are so funny. I don’t watch films. Such a waste of time’. We here these words a lot. We listen and we move along. BeLikeDravid. ”

Anyway, Kohli also responded on this controversy and tried his level best to put a full stop. He tweeted, “I guess trolling isn’t for me guys, I’ll stick to getting trolled! I spoke about how “these Indians” was mentioned in the comment and that’s all. I’m all for freedom of choice. Keep it light guys and enjoy the festive season. Love and peace to all”

Anyway, now with Kohli’s latest response, this controversy has almost come to an end.

Siddharth twitter account hacked

The extremely talented and handsome hero Siddarth is known for being quite active in social media and also his timely tweets on various happenings earned him unique set of followers.

The actor has made a fitting comeback with horror flick Gruham and suddenly got a stunner from hacker today morning. His account has been taken over by an impersonator who made some controversial tweets as well.

Siddharth immediately got control over his account and posted a disclaimer saying the issue had been reported to cyber crime and he is not responsible for those tweets.

Ellame inimey oru maadhiriya dhaan nadakkum! Happy to launch the release poster of #TP2point0 No theory. Only practical. A @csamudhan classic. Starring Akila Ulaga Superstar @actorshiva Puratchi producer @sash041075 Joooot!!! pic.twitter.com/q4BDw9ZcjH

— Siddharth (@Actor_Siddharth) December 9, 2017

Sorry my account has been hacked last 6 minutes. I have reported to cyber crime and they solved it. Hackers have released some objectionable tweets. It's not me. Thank you. #TP2point0

— Siddharth (@Actor_Siddharth) December 9, 2017

Siddharth Gruham updates

Siddharth even being a Tamil origin hero but he proudly accepts that he is a Telugu hero and he even introduces himself as Tollywood actor before media. Due to some lean phase in his career, Siddhu took a small break from Telugu movies and being doing interesting back to back Tamil films. He even stepped away from Bollywood projects and the reasons are best known to the hero himself. But now Siddharth has made a perfect planning for his comeback not only in Telugu but also in the Hindi language.

Already Siddharth the trailer of his upcoming horror thriller film has generated the needed buzz and curiosity in audiences. Now with his team, Siddhu has planned to release the trilingual movie on 3rd November and it’s a rare feat to simultaneously release in Telugu, Hindi, and Tamil on the same day. When star hero films are unable to have same day release in Telugu and Tamil, Siddharth has worked out to release his movie in three languages.

Main Ratnam disciple Milind Rau is making his directional debut and he has co-written the film along with Siddharth. Gruham movie is based on the real-life incidents happened in the Siddharth close friends group and it has inspired him to even co-produce the project. All the best to Siddharth for his comeback movie in all the three languages.