New Delhi: Actor Nagarjuna spilled the beans on the pan-India success of Telugu and Kannada films at the WAVES 2025 summit today. He pointed to the fact that the Indian audience wants their heroes to be larger than life. Film critics agree, they say the north belt is tired of chocolate boy actors.
“Both the Pushpa films made more money in the North than in Telugu. In the North—in Bihar, UP, and Punjab—they wanted to see their heroes like Pushpa Raj, Yash in KGF or Baahubali. They wanted to see larger-than-life heroes,” the actor said, while speaking during the panel discussion ‘Pan-Indian cinema; myth or momentum?’
He was also joined by actors Anupam Kher, Kushboo Sundar and Karthi.
Nagarjuna said that in general, the day-to-day life of an average Indian is difficult. They want to overcome stress by watching films, and they want to see magic on the big screen.
“That’s what the larger-than-life stories are doing, without losing the fundamentals of Indian storytelling. Rajamouli shot Baahubali frame by frame, thinking it was a Telugu film. He was very proud of his roots and language, and he shot it like a Telugu film, and people loved it across the world! If you are rooted to your storytelling, it will resonate,” he said.
Film critic Ramesh Bala also agreed with the actor’s thoughts.
“Bollywood creates films for a multiplex audience, while the South’s action entertainers cater to the inlands as well. One must not forget, our majority population is undergoing development,” Bala said.
He also credited “timing” for the popularity of South films.
“Just when the Northern belt audience was tired of chocolate boy actors and rom-com films, South cinema delivered hits like Baahubali and Pushpa — which caught their attention. One should also understand that action films are the lowest common denominator… they are well received across regions and languages,” he said.
Bala also noted that many blockbuster Hindi films—Wanted, Ghajini and Drishyam—were remakes of South films.
According to the film critic, the South directors also realised the popularity of their scripts and storytelling in the North belt. So, they ventured into getting their films dubbed in Hindi.
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‘Don’t need super powers’
At the WAVES event, Nagarjuna noted that Indian films have their own, unique storytelling DNA, which one must be proud of. He drew comparisons between an Indian actor pulling off abnormal stunts to the stunts in Marvel and DC films.
“You might say, ‘A guy raises his fist and 20 people fall, it looks abnormal!’ But if you like Marvel or DC films, Superman does the same thing, but they give the logic of them having ‘super powers’. But we don’t need those special powers,” he said.
Karthi agreed, saying that the Indian audience doesn’t want ‘art’.
“The common man, the ticket-paying audience, including me, wants to watch my heroes larger than life. When I see Prabhas, Allu Arjun and others going on screen and doing what they do, I clap and whistle.”
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)