“Pan-India is definitely a phenomenon, we cannot diminish it or dilute it” – Karan Johar on crossover cinema in India

December 30, 2021 - 4:47 PM IST

Bollywood producers and filmmakers Karan Johar, Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti, Nikkhil Advani, and Sameer Nair sat down with Anupam Chopra for a recent interview for Film Companion and discussed the state of the Hindi film industry and what the future holds from a business perspective.

“Pan-India is definitely a phenomenon, we cannot diminish it or dilute it” – Karan Johar on crossover cinema in India

While discussing the concept of a pan-India film, Karan Johar weighed in by saying, “I think that this concept started with Baahubali. So, I essentially feel like when we call crossover cinema, invariably when you cross it, it's all over really because nothing really happens. But, the real crossover cinema has to be in the country itself. You have incredible talent in the south. Baahubali showed that it could open doors across the country. Look at the way the first film did. It did Rs. 112 crore with an unheard of cast. Nobody knew anything. His previously released film had done Rs. 1 crore when it was made as Makkhi.”

However, he feels that the idea of pan-India film may not work for every film out there. “Pan India became like – let's not call it Hindi cinema, Marathi cinema, Bengali cinema – let’s say Indian cinema. But that only happens when it's a massive event film because you're getting bang for buck when you see the visual. So this pan-India thing now, it's not going to work all the time. So let's not believe that every megastar in the South and every mega director are going to be able to travel across the country. Baahubali just had that scale it had; it was the first; it had that massive-ness. It almost had that Amar Chitra Katha quality, that storytelling and then mythical value,” he shared.

He further continued, “Similarly, I believe RRR is going to be opening massively. If you read just the Ormax tracking number, it's close to Rs. 30 crore for day one in Hindi. Now that's huge. That is pan-India. That's pan-India screaming right at you. They don't know Jr. NTR in Hindi. They don't know Ram Charan. They are Gods and demi-Gods in Telugu, but they are not known here. Who do we know? We know Rajamouli. We know it is a brand, but still Rs. 30 crores, that’s a huge Hindi number. I don't even want to know what this Telugu number will be like. It could very well be a day one of over Rs. 100 crores or much more and worldwide even larger. Pan-India is when certain elements fall into place brilliantly and beautifully. But it's not going to happen with every film.”

“Pan-India is definitely a phenomenon, we cannot diminish it or dilute it, it exists. The proof is lying in the pudding,” he said.

Johar went on to state, “So, what is happening is that a lot of the South films are dubbed in Hindi, many of them are actually doing very well on satellite. So, I'll give you a tiny example. Allu Arjun is a huge megastar in the South. His last film was one of the biggest Telugu hits ever. When Pushpa: The Rise released right now in Hindi, pure Hindi, it opened to Rs. 3 crores; you would say it's not a big number. But there are a lot of Hindi films that haven’t opened to that number in this pandemic. But, Allu Arjun, in a film called Pushpa, not marketed, just cold release with a poster and digital information; people still want to see it because they knew Allu Arjun from his Telugu dubbed films into Hindi. So there is this satellite that is actually transferring some startup, even percolating it in the north markets from the south. That's what fanning the haze.”

Meanwhile, Karan Johar is currently working on his next directorial Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani with Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh.

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