Recent southern films fall out of favour in Hindi-speaking belt, struggle for a hit

With the exception of Pushpa 2 and Kalki 2898 AD, there haven’t been any major dubbed hits in the past year. Experts said there is unnecessary hype over the dubbing trend and too many films have jumped on to the bandwagon without adequate content or marketing efforts.

The Hindi version of Mani Ratnam’s Thug Life, released in June, made ₹1.56 crore. Kannappa, a Telugu-language Hindu epic starring Vishnu Manchu in the title role and an ensemble cast of Mohanlal, Prabhas and Akshay Kumar earned Rs. 2.75 crore, according to data from Bollywood Hungama, a trade website.

L2: Empuraan, starring Mohanlal and released in March, made ₹2.22 crore in the Hindi belt. Game Changer, with Ram Charan in the lead, did better than the others, clocking in ₹26.6 crore after its release in January.

However, all these earnings pale in comparison to dubbed southern hits such as Pushpa 2: The Rule ( ₹830 crore), KGF: Chapter 2 ( ₹434.7 crore), RRR (274.3 crore) and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion ( ₹511 crore).

“The trend (of dubbed versions of southern films breaking out in the Hindi belt) has died down a little bit,” admitted Rahul Puri, managing director of Mukta Arts and Mukta A2 Cinemas.

While a few films managed to click with Hindi-speaking audiences, Puri said they were followed by several others that wanted to cash in on the hype but didn’t do well even in their home markets.

Half-hearted dubs

Independent trade analyst Sreedhar Pillai said not all names from the south command equal draw in the Hindi belt. Only the likes of filmmaker SS Rajamouli, who first broke out with the Baahubali franchise and then followed it up with RRR, are known – even in tier-two and three north Indian towns – and people flock to the cinemas for their movies.

“If you look at films like Pushpa, the characters appeared real and relatable across the board. In the case of a lot of recent Tamil or Telugu films, the tone and style were entirely south Indian, and it didn’t appear to be anything other than a simple dub,” Pillai pointed out.

Experts said the recent dubbed southern films have been half-hearted attempts to reach out to Hindi-speaking audiences. On the other hand, Kantara (2022), originally filmed in Kannada, had the right flavour, writing and marketing strategy to make it seem like a universal film and releasing in the Hindi market didn’t look like an afterthought.

Still, trade experts are hopeful about the prospects of Rajinikanth’s Coolie, which also features Aamir Khan, Prabhas’ next The Raja Saab, Kantara: A Legend Chapter 1, a prequel to Kantara, and Allu Arjun’s untitled film starring Deepika Padukone to be directed by Atlee of Jawan fame.

“Not too many big-ticket films featuring names familiar in the Hindi belt have been released since Pushpa. But it’s only a matter of time before one does well,” film distributor and exhibitor Akshaye Rathi said.