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Picture this. A pesky housefly buzzes in and out of your ears. You swat it and brush it aside. But what if this fly is a vengeful reincarnate, out to avenge its murder in a previous birth? Absurd in reality, surely, but what of a movie? Even there, most people would laugh the idea off, but not S.S. Rajamouli. The director made a VFX-heavy, bilingual revenge saga out of it—Eega in Telugu and Naan Ee in Tamil—and won the hearts of millions of filmgoers, with a small twist. Eega (meaning fly) was a box office super hit in the South, but the Hindi-dubbed Makkhi was a flop in the North.
I put in as few dialogues as possible. I try to communicate everything through visuals. So, language doesn’t play any role at all.
SS Rajamouli
Filmmaker
It’s a little like his own story. As a fly trying to get his film to more audiences, he was called a visionary for taking a Telugu film to Tamil Nadu (in Tamil), Karnataka (Kannada), and Kerala (Malayalam) for the first time. “At the same time, I was ridiculed because I went to the North with Eega and it didn’t succeed there,” says the 48-year-old director, appearing over a Zoom video call. A shock of salt-and-pepper hair complements a black T-shirt proudly proclaiming ‘RRR’, his most recent work, which set the cash registers ablaze. The fictitious tale about two real-life Indian revolutionaries in the pre-Independence era grossed Rs 1,111 crore worldwide, including Rs 265 crore in Hindi net collections alone.
But before that, he stunned the country and beyond with his two-part magnum opus Baahubali: The Beginning and Baahubali: The Conclusion, and effectively altered Indian cinema’s timelines forever—as pre- and post-Baahubali. As audiences lapped up Katappa ne Baahubali ko kyun maara? [Why did Katappa kill Baahubali?], a market was not just created in the North for theatrical releases of Hindi-dubbed south Indian films, but it also paved the way for them to hammer Hindi films in their home turf. Released in 2015, Baahubali: The Beginning set the pace with an impressive lifetime gross of `500 crore in India to become the country’s highest-grossing movie at the time. The next Baahubali edition rolled in `1,416.9 crore. And more recently, four successive super hits from the South—Pushpa: The Rise Part-1, RRR, KGF: Chapter 2 and Vikram (to a much smaller extent in Hindi as Vikram: Hitlist)—have grossed more than Rs 3,000 crore worldwide, including nearly `800 crore in Hindi net collections. Comparatively, the best-performing Hindi films lately—Gangubai Kathiawadi, The Kashmir Files and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2—have together grossed Rs 811 crore worldwide, including `566 crore net collections in India.
As audiences lapped up Katappa ne Baahubali ko kyun maara? [Why did Katappa kill Baahubali?], a market was not just created in the North for theatrical releases of Hindi-dubbed south Indian films, but it also paved the way for them to hammer Hindi films in their home turf.
From January 2020 to April 2022, of the country’s Rs 9,759-crore cumulative gross box office collection, the four south Indian languages contributed 57.3 per cent. Hindi managed 31 per cent. Seven of the top 10 grossers in this span were from the South, pegs Ormax Media data.
Clearly, Rajamouli has sown the seeds of south Indian cinema’s dominance of Indian movie theatres across the country, with others following in his footsteps. The tale of this transformation, with many nuances and twists, would make for a movie of its own.
Let’s stay with Makkhi for a bit. The movie, which released in 2012, earned cult status on TV (the Hindi-dubbed version) and taught Rajamouli a valuable lesson—he needed the right people to present a film in Hindi. Not too far away, it brought similar realisations to producers Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni, who would go on to produce the Baahubali films. “Makkhi should have been the first pan-India film. That didn’t happen and it was a learning for us as to why it didn’t happen and that’s how we pushed the Baahubali films,” says Yarlagadda, CEO & Co-founder of Arka Mediaworks. Elsewhere, amid Bollywood’s bustle, the little fly caught the attention of film distributor Anil Thadani. “Actually, my first attempt of working with Rajamouli sir was in Makkhi. Someone beat me to it. After I missed the bus in Makkhi, I realised Baahubali is a film I will never let go at whatever cost,” says the Founder of AA Films.
When Rajamouli walked into the Arka Mediaworks office with a grand idea about a woman crossing a river with baby in her hand, the producers knew it had to be taken to the rest of the country to recover the costs. With their combined learnings from the past, they assembled a team of Dharma Productions, AA Films and Mumbai-based PR agency Spice to present, distribute and market the film in the North. Nearly three years, several sleepless nights and Rs 180 crore in total budget later, Baahubali: The Beginning was ready for release in July 2015.
Five out of 200 south Indian films have worked pan-India during this time. Bollywood should have released 70 films but only 20 released finally because the rest went to OTTs. The success rate in films is 5-10 per cent. This ratio is true for films from North and South.
Jayantilal Gada
Chairman & MD
Pen India
The talk in the Dharma office was that the Hindi version would make Rs 15-20 crore, says Yarlagadda. “That was disappointing because it would not have even recovered the marketing costs.” When release day dawned, prospects seemed even bleaker. It seemed the film would be washed out even in Telugu. “There was a moment when we were thinking, ‘Would it mean that we might have to do without the second part?’,” he laughs nervously now. But the collections started picking up in the evening, and raced through the roof. More important than the Rs 500 crore that the movie raked in was the fact that it overshot their estimation in Hindi by more than 7.5x, mopping up Rs 150 crore gross, while holding its own against Salman Khan’s Bajrangi Bhaijaan. “It’s all credit to Anil Thadani. He insisted that we need a lot more screens for the Hindi-dubbed version,” says Yarlagadda, breaking into a smile, the relief evident on his face even after all these years.
To be fair, this is not the first time south Indian films dubbed into Hindi are working well theatrically. Distributors roll out the names of successful movies by Tamil film-makers Mani Ratnam and Shankar—Roja, Bombay, Hindustani, Robot and, more recently, 2.0 with Akshay Kumar as the villain. Those in the trade are also quick to caution that for the handful of films that have worked, several more haven’t. For instance, Prabhas-starrer Radhe Shyam, which was pushed in Hindi on the might of the Baahubali actor, tanked. “Five out of 200 south Indian films have worked pan-India during this time. Bollywood should have released 70 films but only 20 released finally because the rest went to OTTs. The success rate in films is 5-10 per cent. This ratio is true for films from North and South,” says Jayantilal Gada, Chairman & MD of Pen India. He calls it a temporary effect, in part due to Bollywood’s weak pipeline.
Meanwhile, Hindi hits remade in the South have also fared well lately, including Badhaai Ho (Veetla Vishesham), Article 15 (Nenjuku Needhi) and Pink (Nerkonda Paarvai/Vakeel Saab), even as Bollywood is resting its hopes on two large-scale films—Shamshera and the Brahmãstra trilogy, both starring Ranbir Kapoor.
But what has rattled Bollywood is the quick succession and scale of the recent southern hits in Hindi. “The only major change in the last two to three years is that dubbing is no longer limited to satellite viewing,” says Ormax Media’s Founder and CEO, Shailesh Kapoor. That one major shift has come as a boon for both single-screens and multiplexes. Trade analyst Sreedhar Pillai points out that major multiplexes did not screen Hindi-dubbed versions of south Indian films even two years ago. “Now, it is their bread and butter because Pushpa, RRR, KGF2 and Vikram are bringing in the footfalls, which drive food and beverage sales. In the exhibition business, the profits come from the concession stands.”
Makkhi should have been the first pan-India film. That didn’t happen and it was a learning for us as to why it didn’t happen and that’s how we pushed the Baahubali films.
Shobu Yarlagadda
Producer
Baahubali
So, what are they doing right? “Content!” Pat comes the reply from almost everybody interviewed for this piece. The stories themselves are not brand new, but the storytelling is. “An uncle killing the father and the son taking revenge can be Lion King or Baahubali or a stereotypical Bhojpuri film. It’s about how you make that storytelling accessible intellectually to the widest possible audience,” says Nagpur-based exhibitor and distributor Akshaye Rathi, Director of Aashirwad Theatres Pvt. Ltd. Make enough room to weave in larger-than-life action sequences and visual effects organically, and you just may have a winner.
“I put in as few dialogues as possible. I try to communicate everything through visuals. So, language doesn’t play any role at all,” says Rajamouli, an agnostic whose tales are replete with mythological themes of reincarnation and revenge, brought to life using heavy doses of modern-day technologies. Ever the director, he pushes a table outside the Zoom frame for creating too much white space, before settling in for the conversation from Hyderabad. “Language is not a barrier,” he says. “It’s a medium.” Yet, he finds it easiest to make films in Telugu, a language he thinks in. “How do I make my story understood by more number of people? The automatic decision is to dub it into a language that other people understand. But that is not as simple as it sounds. I dubbed RRR into five languages. So, why didn’t I go into Gujarati? Rajasthani? Bengali? Punjabi?”
Simply put, a market has to be created. RRR worked in Hindi because the Baahubali team had already laid the groundwork. “Our main challenge was in the first part itself. How do we get the message across?” The second part, in comparison, was a cakewalk, says producer Yarlagadda. From getting a Facebook page up and running from day one of the shoot, releasing behind-the scenes videos on Facebook and YouTube even as filming progressed, using Google Trends and other social media analytics to monitor traction, sending actors to colleges in Punjab and Kolkata to promote the film and boost viewership, presenting it at the Delhi Comic Con, and tying up with the Indian Railways to give out Baahubali teacups on select intercity routes, they went all out to engage with north Indian audiences. “Maharashtra and Mumbai and all are easier to penetrate. But as you go North to Punjab and the Hindi heartland, it takes a little longer,” says Yarlagadda, adding that at the peak, 20 people worked in-house directly on marketing.
When the efforts paid off, it showed other film-makers what was possible. “It’s all thanks to Rajamouli and Yarlagadda for making pan-India films and giving us the confidence,” says Vijay Kiragandur, Co-founder of Hombale Group, which produced the KGF movies. It was a meeting with Rajamouli in Bengaluru two months before KGF1’s release that set the ball rolling. They showed him an 8-10-minute show-reel cut of the film on an iPad, and he asked them to go pan-India. “People in Karnataka were saying we are spending more on marketing than production in KGF1. [His words] gave us the confidence to spend that much. Otherwise also we would have gone all out, but would not have taken that much of a risk unless we heard it from the horse’s mouth,” says Kiragandur.
