Bollywood needs 15-20 years to catch up with South cinema: Kanguva producer KE Gnanavel Raja
Kanguva producer KE Gnanavel Raja predicted a continued dominance of South Indian talent in Bollywood, citing their unique approach to hero elevation and action-packed storytelling.
Updated : July 10, 2024 03:48 PM ISTKanguva producer KE Gnanavel Raja predicted a continued dominance of South Indian talent in Bollywood, citing their unique approach to hero elevation and action-packed storytelling.
Animal and Jawan
It seems the South Indian commercial entertainers with larger-than-life heroes have ruined the audiences for Bollywood movies. "A Tamil director and a Hindi star is what's selling now," claimed producer KE Gnanavel Raja.
He observed that Hindi filmmakers failed to grasp the pulse of the mass audience, creating a lot of demand for South Indian filmmakers and technicians in the Hindi film industry. Take, for example, Amitabh Bachchan's role in Kalki 2898 AD. He plays the mythological hero Ashwatthama in the epic drama, and he hasn't performed such a dynamic and action-packed role in a long time in his career.
Similarly, Shah Rukh Khan's action avatar in Jawan and Ranbir Kapoor's wild performance in Animal looked very fresh for audiences in the North Indian states. The common element between these two blockbusters is that they were helmed by Atlee and Sandeep Reddy Vanga, both South Indian filmmakers.
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"South directors who made us proud and added value to South Indian cinema: Atlee and Sandeep Reddy Vanga. Phenomenal. The kind of credibility we got in Bollywood because of these two directors... I think we have another batch of South directors collaborating with Bollywood stars. The way our directors think is getting a lot of respect in the Hindi film industry," Gnanavel told Galatta Plus.
At the risk of sounding pompous, Gnanavel claimed that Bollywood filmmakers were no match when it came to making large mass commercial entertainers.
"Bollywood filmmakers can't make commercial films like we do. The action pulse of Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada directors has no match in Bollywood. They (the Hindi filmmakers) will take another 15-20 years to learn it," he added.
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Jawan went on to earn more than Rs 1000 crore in global ticket sales, while Animal became the biggest-ever hit in Ranbir's career by raking in more than Rs 900 crore in global box office receipts.
"Hindi filmmakers don't understand hero elevation. They will take another five years to learn it and another 10 years to put it into practice. Until then, South directors will rule Bollywood. I have signed stars in Bollywood. But, my first condition is directors and technicians will be from the south, especially the Tamil film industry," he remarked.
Gnanavel is now waiting for the release of Kanguva. Starring Suriya in the lead role, the film has been mounted on a huge scale. He's planning a grand release for Kanguva in Hindi.