South cinema drowned in Pan-India affair? From ‘The Raja Saab’ to ‘KD’, the box office piles up.

The past few times have been very disappointing for the South Film Industry. Many big budget films of South Cinema, which created a stir across the country with films like ‘Baahubali’, ‘Pushpa’ and ‘RRR’, have failed at the box office. These include Prabhas’ most awaited films like ‘The Raja Saab’, ‘KD: The Devil’, ‘Peddi’ and ‘Mana Shankar Vara Prasad Garu’, from which the makers had huge expectations. This failure has shaken the entire industry and now serious questions are being raised on the stardom of big superstars. The sky-high fees of the stars and the weak story became the villain. The biggest reason for this bad phase of South Cinema has become the huge fees of the superstars. A huge part of the total budget of the film goes into the pocket of the lead actor alone. As a result, a nominal budget is left for technical things like writing, screenplay and VFX. The makers are focusing more on polishing the hero’s image, slow-motion entry and heavy dialogues than on the story, due to which the screenplay is becoming a waste. The old formula failed, films do not run on star power alone. After the immense success of ‘Baahubali’ and ‘KGF’, every maker has joined the blind race to make his film a ‘Pan-India’ blockbuster. In this matter, money is being spent like water only on expensive sets and star power, leaving aside real emotion and strong story. Today, in the era of social media and OTT, the audience has become very aware. They are not buying theater tickets just by seeing the face of a big superstar, rather they are looking for new content. The impact of OTT has increased, the public is considering content as the king. The audience knows very well that any new film will come on their mobile screens i.e. OTT platforms within a few weeks of its release. In such a situation, they go to theaters only when there is something very special and unique in the film. Its worst impact is on those average films which earlier used to run only in the name of stars. South cinema still has an army of excellent directors and technicians, all that is needed is that they come out of the glamor of the star system and start betting on strong stories again.