Like it or not, despite the fact that almost all ‘Pan-Indian’ South Indian-made films have bit the dust in Hindi this year, the South’s presence in Hindi cinema can no longer be wished away. If Kalki 2898 AD brought in good money, the expectations around Pushpa: The Rule—Part 2 and Baby John remain humongous.
The collaborations too are on the increase, and we have the latest news that Salman Khan will co-star with either Kamal Haasan or Rajinikanth in a new Atlee film! Atlee, incidentally, is the co-writer and producer of Baby John after his Jawan emerged as 2023’s biggest hit! And believe it or not, Baby John proves that remakes may no longer be considered hot per se but are still being conceived.
The Rs. 100-Crore Club
What’s more, both Pushpa: The Rule and Baby John are the biggest contenders in the rest of 2024 for the Rs. 100 Crores or higher club!
Now let us look at the Rs. 100-crores club, which both the above films are expected to join soon. As of now, of the 121 members of this club, nine are of South Indian origin, of which KGF 2 is originally a Kannada movie, 2.0 is originally Tamil and the remaining 7 films are in Telugu.
A brief lookback
From 1948, when Gemini Studios in Chennai made the first Hindi film, Chandralekha, there has been a steady influx of South producers, directors and subjects as their remakes flourished. So many actresses came in from there, occasionally a hero also featured, and from the 1980s, we got a regular stream of South Indian heroes. From the 1980s also came composer Ilaiyaraaja, followed by A.R. Rahman (who made it big) and M.M. Kreem in the 1990s, while singers like Yesudas, S.P. Balasubramaniam and Chithra made popular but transient marks from the 1970s to the 1990s.
The South stopped making original Hindi movies after the 1990s, though dubbed movies (which were there for ages) and their soundtracks became a trend after Roja (1993). Remakes continued to thrive, and among them, four Salman Khan films—Biwi No. 1, based on the Tamil film Sathi Leelavathi, No Entry from the Tamil Charlie Chaplin and Bodyguard (2011) from the Malayalam film of that name were the biggest hits of those years.
The biggest of them all was Ghajini (2008), a remake of a Tamil film of the same name. It may have starred Aamir Khan, but director A.R. Murugadoss and Asin made a breakthrough. A.R. Rahman scored music. This film became the first to net Rs. 100 crores and so the ‘100-Crore Club’ was first set up with a South-made Hindi film!
The unique year, 2011
In fact, after Bodyguard, Ready, 2011’s second highest grosser from the 2008 Tamil film, Ready and Singham, the third biggest hit of 2011, also a remake of the 2010 Tamil film Singam, made 2011 a unique year in Hindi cinema, as these three Rs. 100 crore films did not even change names when remade!
South Indian makers to the fore
A.R. Murugadoss subsequently directed Holiday. Though planned as an original Hindi film, thanks to (producer) Akshay Kumar’s date hassles, it was shot only after its Tamil version and so became a remake again! The other directors who came in from the South for original Hindi films and not for bi- or tri-linguals were Siddique (Bodyguard), Sandeep Vanga Reddy (Kabir Singh, Animal), Atlee (Jawan) and Prabhudheva (Rowdy Rathore, Dabangg 3).
The South-made films with Hindi dubs were obviously helmed by directors from down there like Shankar (2.0), S.S. Rajamouli (Bahubali’s two parts, RRR), Prashanth Neel (KGF 2, Salaar), Sujeeth (Saaho), Sukumar (Pushpa…) and Nag Ashwin (Kalki 2898 AD), though one strong remake, Drishyam 2, was directed by Mumbai-grown Abhishek Pathak!
Coming to the heroes, we have had Kamal Haasan in Kalki 2898 AD and Rajinikanth in 2.0 (aside from his cameo as Chitti in RA. One). In Hindi films, Prabhas did Saaho, Kalki 2898 AD and Adipurush, besides Salaar Part 1: Ceasefire (with Prithviraj Sukumaran) and the Bahubali franchise. Rana Daggubati (besides his cameo in Housefull 4) shared the Bahubali franchise, while NTR Jr. and Ram Charan did RRR besides a cameo in Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan, a remake again of the Tamil film, Veeram. Allu Arjun and Fahadh Faasil did Pushpa…, and Yash acted in KGF 2. Venkatesh also appeared in Kisi Ka Bhai…, while Nagarjuna made a cameo in Brahmastra: Part 1—Shiva. Vijay Sethupathi was the antagonist in Jawan.
The heroines’ census had an equivalent share. Apart from Taapsee Pannu, Bhumika Chawla, Kajal Aggarwal, Pooja Hegde, Rakul Preet Singh, Tamannaah Bhatia, Shriya Saran and Jyothika, who became well-established entities only after doing films down South despite being North Indian in origin, we had Asin (Ghajini, Ready and Housefull 2), Srinidhi Shetty (KGF 2), Rashmika Mandanna (Animal, Pushpa…), Anushka Shetty (the Bahubali franchise), Nayanthara (Jawan), Nithya Menen (Mission Mangal), Samantha Ruth Prabhu (in a song cameo in Pushpa), Shruti Haasan (Salaar) and veterans Ramya Krishnan (the Bahubali franchise) and Revathi (2 States).
Not just A.R. Rahman and M.M. Kreem
The South music makers also got to score (pun intended) in many Hindi films. While A.R. Rahman was a part of Ghajini and 2.0 besides Jab Tak Hai Jaan and also composed a single song in Sanju, M.M. Kreem scored the three Rajamouli films, even winning the Oscar and the BAFTA awards for Bahubali—The Conclusion. In a unique case, Ravi Basrur (KGF 2, Salaar) also composed one song in Kisi Ka Bhai…. Anurudh Ravichander scored all the songs for Jawan.
As Hindi filmmakers and stars suddenly began to swear by South maestros, S. Thaman’s compositions were used in Golmaal Again and Simmba by Rohit Shetty. Santhosh Narayanan scored music for Kalki 2898 AD. Harshvardhan Rameshwar, besides doing the background scores for Kabir Singh and Animal, composed ‘Papa meri jaan’ in the latter film. Ghibran (Saaho) scored the BGM of Saaho.
Devi Sri Prasad, a.k.a. Rockstar DSP, a National award winner for Pushpa…, also composed the melodies of Drishyam 2, has a fan in Salman Khan, and one song was composed each in his Kisi Ki Bhai… and Jai Ho!. And to avoid controversies, Pritam, who used only DSP’s rhythmic refrain ‘Ringa ringa’ from Arya (2004) as ‘Dhinka chika’ in his original composition in Ready, credited DSP with the entire song.
Naturally, most of these composers also used singers from their parts of the country—too numerous to mention here, though. For the record, S.P. Balasubramaniam had recorded the title song of Chennai Express, but it was replaced by what turned out to be Yo Yo Honey Singh’s film debut!
…And the Mumbai ‘Southies’!
Let us also not forget at the end that Rohit Shetty, who has directed a whopping 10 among 112 Hindi movies, is of South Indian roots. The same is true of Vidya Balan (Mission Mangal, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3) and Deepika Padukone, who leads among heroines with 12 movies, and filmmakers R. Balki and Jagan Shakti (Mission Mangal again). Shankar Mahadevan, singer and a part of the Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy team of composers (Don 2, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, 2 States, Saaho, Raazi) also has origins from Kerala.
In Hindi cinema, clearly “Going South” has an opposite meaning, as it signifies scoring high!
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