Firstpost at Waves 2025: Nagarjuna on 'Coolie', pan-India cinema and why 'Pushpa' and 'KGF' were blockbusters in Hindi: 'The audiences wants to see...'

Is there a formula to make a blockbuster pan-India film? Superstar Nagarjuna feels there is only one ingredient of success: Stay rooted to your native language and the honesty will transcend language barriers. Nagarjuna, who has headlined some of the biggest Indian blockbusters over the decades, says the pan-India success of Telugu films like Pushpa and Baahubali, as well as Kannada actioner KGF, points to the fact that the Indian audience wants their heroes to be larger than life.

At the WAVES 2025 summit, Nagarjuna said there is a reason why Allu Arjun’s Pushpa franchise earned more in Hindi than Telugu, as the audience in the North was craving to see stars in a tentpole movie set-up, like the Sukumar directorial or Yash’s blockbuster KGF series.

More from Entertainment

'Jugnuma' Movie Review: Manoj Bajpayee-Deepak Dobriyal’s terrific performances stood out in this beautifully restrained way of storytelling 'Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale' Movie Review: The final goodbye of Julian Fellowes’s beloved British soap

“Both the Pushpa films made more money in the North than in Telugu. We have seen similar stories in Telugu before, like Pushpa, which has larger-than-life heroes. Whereas 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. For Indian people and culture, just living day to day is difficult, and when they want to overcome the stress by watching films, they want to see magic on screen.

“That’s what the larger-than-life stories are doing, without losing the fundamentals of Indian storytelling. They are not going away from that, which is why they have been successful. Rajamouli shot Baahubali frame to frame, thinking it is 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,” Nagarjuna said.

The superstar was speaking on the panel discussion ‘Pan-Indian cinema; myth or momentum?’ and was joined by actors Anupam Kher, Khusbhu and Karthi.

Nagarjuna said Indian films have their own, unique storytelling DNA, which one must be proud of.

“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! 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.”

The actor, who has two biggies lined up for release, including Kuberaa with Dhanush and Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Coolie, said both the films have been “rooted” in their storytelling. Coolie, which is releasing in August, also stars Rajinikanth, Upendra, and Shruti Haasan among others.

When asked how he handles the pressure of having a pan-India blockbuster with every film, Nagarjuna said, “I don’t know about others, but first and foremost, I want my film to work in Telugu, and then organically it will work everywhere. I have Kuberaa with Dhanush as well as Lokesh’s next Coolie, which has Rajini sir, Aamir Khan, Upendra, Shruti, it is a huge film. Lokesh made it thinking it is a Tamil film. So, if it works in your language, it will work everywhere.”