Blurring Boundaries: An Upsurge in Talent Exchange Between Regional Film Industries

Tamil directors have never found it a problem to work with stars in Telugu cinema. But this magnanimity or conviction in ability has never been reciprocated by our Tamil brethren, except for the one time when legendary Kamal Haasan worked with K Vishwanath, A Kodandarami Reddy and Singeetam Srinivasa Rao in the 1980s. Tamil super stars have a sizable following in Telugu too and yet, they have always preferred to get their films dubbed in Telugu instead of opting for a straight film. Of late though, there has been an incredible change in the landscape. There are three projects in different stages of production which are being helmed by Telugu directors featuring Tamil heroes: Vamshi Paidipally is directing Vijay in a project bankrolled by Dil Raju. Similarly, Dhanush is playing the main lead in Sir, directed by Venky Atluri (fame of 2018 film Tholi Prema) and produced by Naga Vamsi of Sithara Entertainments and Sai Soujanya, wife of popular writer-director Trivikram Srinivas. Finally, we have ‘Jathi Rathnalu’ director KV Anudeep teaming up with Sivakarthikeyan (of 'Remo' and 'Varun Doctor' fame), and backed by the Late Narayan Das Narang, Puskur Ram Mohan Rao, and Suresh Babu Daggubati. What can be the reason for this shift in the mindset of the Tamil heroes? “It’s definitely Baahubali,” says director Chaitanya Dantuluri (of 'Banam', 'Basanthi' and the recent 'Bhala Thandanana'). “Baahubali increased the respect for Telugu directors tremendously to the point that today; any film being made by a Telugu director with a star is getting extensive coverage by the national media. Market valuations have changed completely. A straight Telugu film with a Telugu director will fetch far more value for the Tamil hero in terms of ‘satellite rights’, ‘OTT valuations’ and ‘Theatrical rights’. A dubbed film will not be accorded the same respect whereas a film made by a Telugu director and dubbed in Hindi or any other language is a hot cake,” says Chaitanya. Prominent actor and director Srinivas Avasarala offers another interesting perspective, “It’s also the question of availability. The explosion of the OTT scene in the country has resulted in good storytellers being engaged for continuous periods of time. If a director prepares a script for a big hero who is unable to accommodate his dates, then the director is perfectly willing to make that film with a star from another language as the markets have opened up. The stars also need not worry about the language barrier anymore”. Meanwhile, Tamil directors continue to call the shots in our language too. 'Sandakozhi / Pandem Kodi', director N Lingusamy is working with Ram Pothineni for The Warrior, renowned filmmaker S Shankar is directing Ram Charan in an untitled Pan-Indian film, and Venkat Prabhu, known for directing 'Mankatha' and the latest 'Maanadu', has recently announced his collaboration with Naga Chaitanya. Rounding off the list of other language filmmakers working with Telugu star actors is director Prashanth Neel, who put Kannada film industry on the world map with his ‘KGF’ series. Prashanth is directing Prabhas in the pan-Indian project Salaar apart from a movie with Jr NTR that will go on floors after ‘Salaar’. Young guns from Telugu, Sandeep Reddy Vanga and Gowtam Tinnanuri are also working in Hindi. While Sandeep Reddy tasted success with ‘Kabir Singh’ (a Hindi remake of Arjun Reddy, featuring Shahid Kapoor in the lead), his next project ‘Animal’ with Ranbir Kapoor is currently on location, and Gowtham’s film ‘Jersey’ (a Hindi remake of the Telugu original) has released recently. There is also a possibility of ‘Gabbar Singh’ director Harish Shankar directing none other than Salman Khan in the near future. Given this scenario across the nation and the healthy exchange of talent, to put it in Megastar Chiranjeevi’s words, the day might not be far off when all barriers of regional cinema will be supplanted with a single identity of ‘Indian Cinema’. That is something that can only bode well for the nation as the art form becomes a major unifying force for people across the country.

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