New Delhi: Lucknow, Patna, Jaipur and other cities in India’s heartland have emerged as the perfect launching stage for big-budget south Indian films. From single screens being converted to multiplexes and LED lights imported from other states, no expense is spared by producers from film industries in the south.
Two lakh fans thronged at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan for the trailer release of Telugu superstar Allu Arjun’s highly anticipated movie, Pushpa 2: The Rule.
Until the very last moment, there was no clarity on the location of the release. The confirmation call for the trailer release event came on 13 November, a mere four days before the extravagant event.
That didn’t stop Arjun’s fans in India’s heartland from coming out in large numbers.
Such was the response on the ground earlier this month, that the actor posted a photo of himself standing in front of the crowd, and captioned it, “Pushpa does not bow in front of anybody but, for the first time, he will bow in front of your love. Thank you, Patna.”
Pushpa Kabhi Jhukega Nahi, Lekin Pehli baar Aap ke Pyaar ke liye Jhukega .. धन्यवाद पटना 🖤 pic.twitter.com/r9T9fp94gO
— Allu Arjun (@alluarjun) November 17, 2024
“We got the call from the production company of Pushpa 2: the Rule, during Chhath. We were busy celebrating the festival, and were definitely not expecting the call,” said Parimal Madhup, who along with Hansa Sinha, runs the event management company Creative Imprints, which produced the event on the ground.
Patna, which sees promotional events of Bhojpuri movies, or the occasional Bollywood event, had not experienced a release of this scale.
“Such events take at least 15 days of planning and groundwork. But we had just four days to get elements ready. Special effects, fireworks, green rooms, barricades and security and a 40-foot cutout of Allu Arjun,” said Sinha. The LED walls had to be imported.
Some members of the crowd even tried to break through the barricade to catch a glimpse of the actor. The police had to resort to ‘mild lathi charging’ to control the crowd, according to an ANI video.
Also read: Who is Telugu cinema’s ‘worldwide star’—Ram Charan or Jr NTR? Teaser views are the metric
Craze for south Indian stars
Film industries, from Bollywood to Tollywood are taking note. Nobody expected such a response in Patna.
“We have already maximised the potential in South, but a lot of the hundreds of crores that these movies make comes from the Hindi and pan Indian audience in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. When you do an event there, the national media also takes it up more,” said senior film critic Ramesh Bala.
Earlier, on 9 November, Ram Charan flew all the way to Lucknow to unveil the teaser of his Sankranthi release, Game Changer. Pratibha Theatre, an old heritage spot in the city, renovated into a multiplex, was chosen as the venue.
“All our seats were filled. But what’s more interesting is that Ram Charan’s fans had travelled all the way from Hyderabad and other cities to attend the event. He even addressed them in Telugu,” said Anurag Jain, managing partner of Pratibha Theatre.
The event was finalised within a week, and the theatre owners were eager to host the stars.
“There is a definite craze for many South Indian stars, and as soon as news was published that the teaser will be launched here, people were seen hanging around the theatre,” said Jain.
Lucknow and Jaipur in particular have emerged as popular Tier-2 cities for Bollywood promotional events too. Pratibha Theatre earlier hosted the team of Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba. A lot of fans gathered to catch a glimpse of the film’s stars Taapsee Pannu, Vikrant Massey and Sunny Kaushal. Jaipur’s Rajmandir Theatre hosted the trailer release event of Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3. Kartik Aaryan, Vidya Balan, and Madhuri Dixit attended the event.
Also read: What North vs South? Ram Charan’s ‘Game Changer’ is releasing its teaser in Lucknow
A new market
This trend of heading to tier 2 cities in the North was started by SS Rajamouli. His 2015 film Baahubali: The Beginning is labelled the first ‘pan Indian’ film. For RRR (2022), “Rajamouli went to Amritsar and other cities, and that’s when makers realised that it opened up these markets more. RRR was a big hit in these places,” said Bala.
Rajamouli even had a team, collecting information from tier 2 towns like Lucknow, Indore, Ahmedabad and Nagur, asking people if they knew of the film’s leads or Rajamouli. The marketing strategy was planned accordingly.
“If you see the RRR campaign, the hoardings in the North very clearly say ‘from the director of Baahubali’ because people knew Baahubali, they didn’t know Rajamouli,” said marketing expert Varun Gupta in an interview with The Indian Express.
But the Pushpa 2 event has now pushed the envelope according to industry experts.
“No other film would choose Gandhi Maidan, which is usually famous for election rallies. It shows that the makers are focusing seriously on that market. And people are coming to show support in humongous numbers,” said Bala.
Small towns in particular are hoping that Pushpa 2 creates a major gold rush, be it on single screen or multiplexes.
“The team of Pushpa 2 were served spicy samosa and they enjoyed it,” said Sinha. This event has also boosted their confidence level in organising more such events in the state.
“I would like to say that Bihar is changing, and this event is proof,” she added.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)
Even North Indians coming to work in south states and gujarati coming for business and politics and there’s a craze of quality mass south cinema do you know allu arjun is a big big star and he brings huge revenue this is the reason behind in Kerala even though with dubbed movies bollywood too much showoff see ranveer singh too much over acting kartik Aryan non sense Ranbir is good shahrukh Salman Aamir trolled being a muslims and became old it’s all because of hatred politics do you think Salman and shahrukh do Pooja on Ganesh chaturthi no it’s because of fans and fear
Telugu superstars are scouting for actresses. Given the utterly racist nature of the film industry, they want fair-skinned North Indian women who can dance well. A bit of acting talent will come in handy.
That’s what they are looking for in Patna and Jaipur.