Tamil and Telugu stars and directors collaborate for better cinema

When top Telugu star Mahesh Babu signed on a film with ace Tamil film director A R Murugadoss in 2017, it seemed to be a dream combination that would result in a blockbuster. However, ‘ _Spyder_ ’ didn’t fare well at the box office and that seemed to put a brake on those who were looking at such cross-industry collaborations. However, over the last year the number of top Tamil actors signing on films with successful directors in Tollywood – and vice-versa – has been on the rise. Kollywood star Vijay is the latest to jump onto this bandwagon having signed a film with Vamshi Paidipally titled Varisu. The movie is being produced by well-known Telugu producer Dil Raju and it looks to be a pucca commercial action entertainer. Meanwhile, Dhanush has a film with Tollywood directors Sekhar Kammula and Venky Atluri ; Sivakarthikeyan with KV Anudeep ; and Ram Charan with director Shankar who is making Telugu debut. Tamil director Venkat Prabhu is making his Telugu debut with Naga Chaitanya and director Lingusamy is directing Ram Pothineni . While movies have always been dubbed in various languages and released, this is an interesting trend that seems to be finding favour with actors, directors and producers in both the Tamil and Telugu film industries.

Some Projects are Special from Word Go!This is one such. It’s been a dream to work with @shankarshanmugh Thru @AlwaysRamCharan that dream is set to become a reality.Their film launched today.Wishing them,@advani_kiara #DilRaju @SVC_Official & entire team Very Best! #RC15 #SVC50 pic.twitter.com/BYVGzFuYDz

— Chiranjeevi Konidela (@KChiruTweets) September 8, 2021

Tamil stars Suriya and Karthi have always had a strong market in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and their Tamil films dubbed in Telugu do good business. One of the Tamil producers who has worked with both these stars extensively is S R Prabhu of Dream Warrior Pictures, who has made successful films like ‘Saguni’, ‘Joker’, ‘Theeran Adhigaram Onru’, ‘Kaithi’ and ‘Aruvi’. Ask Prabhu whether this new collaboration trend we are seeing is because of the stars’ desire to expand their market or whether it’s about the best of talent coming together and he states it is because of a combination of many factors. “These collaborations are based on many things like the availability of stars and the technicians; the salary; the comfort factor between them and also market expansion,” he says. One of the many similarities between the Tamil and Telugu film industries is the love for big-budget mass action masala flicks with their top stars. For instance, if we saw ‘ _Pushpa_ ’ and ‘ _RRR_ ’ recently in Telugu, we saw ‘ _Vikram_ ’ in Tamil. Thus, working on similar tropes is possibly a cakewalk for directors and actors in both industries. However, it’s only when it comes to social and family dramas that local sensibilities need to be kept in mind with Tamil cinema being more realistically rooted. Having said that, stars in both the Tamil and Telugu film industries are well paid - as are the technicians - and with an expanding market it also means that remuneration can increase for them substantially. The desire to create new and innovative content for the audience is also pushing stars to seek out new talent.

Ok now this feels like something else… ❤️❤️ Been watching sir for years and years and now to do everything that I’ve been wanting to do.. act with him, dance with him, take his nazar, talk to him.. everything .. yaaaaay finally! 😄❤️ An absolute delight.. ❤️#talapathyvijay pic.twitter.com/SHtFfKryip

— Rashmika Mandanna (@iamRashmika) April 7, 2022

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Kollywood star Vijay has seen his last few films like ‘ _Sarkar_ ’, ‘ _Bigil_ ’ and ‘ _Master_ ’, do brisk business in the Telugu states and this move of working with a Telugu director is likely to expand his market further. If Varisu strikes gold at the box office then we are likely to see more doors opening for others as well. Tamil actor and director Barath Neelakantan, who was last seen as the protagonist in Nayanthara ’s ‘ _O2_ ’, explains, “Most Bollywood films have always been pan-India films by default, especially those with stars like Aamir Khan , Shah Rukh Khan or Salman Khan , because there was a Hindi-speaking audience across all metros. But the reverse was not the case with other language films. Somehow post the pandemic, non-Hindi films have started going pan-India - particularly south cinema – which is very welcoming personally as an audience and a filmmaker. These new collaborations are inevitable and I think it is good for cinema. I think this movie is being welcomed by the producers and investors also as it’s commercially viable. More bang for the buck – more screens, more audience and thus, wider the safety net. I’m glad the top stars are supporting this move and filmmakers are happy too. It’s good for all of us.” The Tamil and Telugu film industry have always been closely connected as during the early years, Chennai or Madras was the production hub for studios and producers for both industries. Telugu classics of the 1950s like ‘Mayabazar’, ‘Pathala Bhairavi’ and ‘Missamma’ were shot in Chennai and eventually, Akkineni Nageswara Rao built the Annapoorna Studios in Hyderabad in 1975. And eventually, the Telugu film industry bloomed there and large studios of Hyderabad are now being used by all film industries. With Tamil-Telugu film collaborations on the rise, it now remains to be seen how successful they are and if the southern film industries will slowly merge into one large entity. Latha Srinivasan is a senior journalist based in Chennai. Her passion is entertainment, travel, and dogs. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.