From L V Prasad to RGV, the South is no stranger to crossover cinema

South Indian film industries have always been a key contributor to Bollywood both in terms of super hit stories and crossover stars like Rajinikanth and Kamal HaasanWhile the trend of making multilingual movies by the southern filmmakers and releasing them panIndia is the recent one the Telugu and Tamil film industries had been contributing to the success of Bollywood for decadesSuccessful stories in Tollywood and Kollywood always attracted the filmmakers from Bollywood The leading filmmakers from the south also tried their hands and most of the times were successful in making Hindi movies with their own stories and a mixed star castWellknown producer actor and director LV Prasad a Telugu was one the pioneers who enriched the Indian cinema He acted in Indias first talkie Alam Ara in 1931 and also had the distinction of acting in Kalidas the first Telugu and Tamil bilingual talkie and in first Telugu talkie Bhakta Prahlada He not only acted in Hindi and Telugu movies but also produced directed movies in various Indian languages including Telugu Tamil Kannada and MalayalamThe story of Bollyood adapting to the successful formulas in south goes back to 1960s Filmmaker Dr B Kiran Kumar recalls that several hit movies starring legendary actors NT Rama Rao and Akkineni Nagaeswara Rao were remade in HindiTelugu language comedy drama Ramudu Bheemudu 1964 a story of twin brothers played by legendary NT Rama Rao and directed by Tapi Chanakya was remade in Hindi as Ram Aur Shyam 1967 starring thespian Dilip Kumar Ramudu Bheemudu was also remade in Tamil Malayalam and KannadaNavarathri 1966 starring Akkineni Nageswara Rao in nine roles proved a super hit Its director T Rama Rao who passed away recently was seen as the pioneer of crossover movies Many of his family drama movies were remade in HindiNavarathri was made in Hindi as Naya Din Nayi Raat with Sanjeev Kumar playing nine roles However it bombed at the box office However this did not deter T Rama Rao He worked with Jeetendra for Hindi remakes of at least 10 of his hit Telugu moviesT Rama Rao directed Yamagola 1977 starring N T Rama Rao which was a big hit He directed the same story in Hindi as Lok Parlok 1979 with Jeetendra in the lead The formula worked and this marked the beginning of their associationThe next two years saw T Rama Rao directing Jeetendra in Judai 1980 Ek Hi Bhool 1981 and Maang Bharo Sajna 1980 all remakes of Telugu and Tamil hits Interestingly all the three movies had Rekha in the female leadDevatha 1982 directed by K Raghavendra Rao and starring Sobhan Babu Sridevi and Jayaprada was remade in Hindi as Tohfa 1984 with Jeetendra playing the male lead Based on the story of two sisters who are in love with the same man it proved a big hitT Rama Rao also partnered with Rajinikanth for Hindi remarks Tamil action movie Moondru Mugam 1982 with Rajinikanth in a triple role and directed by A Jagannathan was a blockbuster It was remade in Hindi as John Jani Janardhan 1984 and directed by T Rama Rao but it proved a flop Bulandi 2000 a remake of 1994 Tamil hit Nattamai met a similar fate Rajinikanth had a special appearance in Bulandi which starred Anil Kapoor in double roleHowever biggest success for T Rama Rao with Rajinikanth in Hindi came with Andha Kanoon 1983 which also starred Amitabh Bachchan in an extended special appearance It was a remake of THE Tamil hit Satam Oru Iruttarai 1981 starring VijayakanthT Rama Rao also directed Amitabh Bachchan in political thriller Inquilaab 1984 which was Hindi remake of the Telugu film Eenadu 1982 starring then super star Krishna Interestingly the filmmaker also made another Hindi remake of the same Yeh Desh starring Jeetendra and Kamal HaasanTamil filmmaker K Balachander is also considered a pioneer of crossover concept In 1977 he directed Aaina starring Mumtaz and Rajesh Khanna It was remake of Tamil movie Arangetram 1973 which revolves around a young woman who takes to prostitution to support her conservative but poor family It marked Kamal Haasans first adult roleKamal Haasan went on to play the lead in several movies directed by Balachander The filmmaker gave Bollywood one of the biggest hits of its times with romantic tragedy Ek Duje Ke Liye in 1981 With this movie Kamal Haasan Rati Agnihotri and Madhavi made their Bollywood debut It was a remake of Telugu film Maro Charitra 1978 which too had Kamal Haasan in the lead and deals with crosscultural romance between a Tamil boy and Telugu girl Ek Duje Ke Liye was about romance between a Tamil boy and a Hindispeaking girl The film is known for Bollywood debut of singer SP Balasubrahmanyam and some of the memorable melodiesTelugu film industry watchers point out that in addition to remaking south films into Bollywood movies many movies from Tollywood and Kollywood were dubbed into HindiWellknown directors Mani Ratnam Ram Gopal Verma Shankar AR Murgadoss gave some of the biggest hits to BollywoodTamil action thriller Oru Kaidhiyin Diary 1985 starring Kamal Haasan in dual role was a superhit movie It was directed K Bharathiraja and cowritten by K Bhagyaraj who remade it in Hindi as Aakhree Raasta 1986 with Amitabh Bachchan playing the leadMani Ratnams Anjali 1990 based on the story of an autistic child and the 1992 romantic thriller Roja were blockbusters His Bombay 1995 based on the 199293 riots too was dubbed in Hindi Telugu and Malayalam with the same titleShankars action thriller Indian 1996 starring Kamal Haasan in dual role was dubbed in Hindi as Hindustani The celebrated directors romantic comedy Jeans 1998 starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in female lead was also dubbed in Hindi He also remade political action thriller Mudhalvan 1999 starring Arjun and Manisha Koirala in Hindi as Nayak 2001 with Anil Kapoor and Rani MukerjiThere are also instances of Kollywood remaking Hindi hits into Tamil Shankar made the Aamir Khanstarrer 3 Idiots 2009 into Tamil as Nanban 2012Murgados Tamil action thriller Ghajini 2005 with Suriya and Asin in the lead was not only dubbed in Telugu but he also had its Hindi remake with the same name and casting Aamir Khan in the lead Released in Hindi in 2008 it was based on the story of a businessman with short term memory loss out to avenge his girlfriendFilmmaker Laxman Murari pointed out that despite Ghajini became a hit in two regional languages its Hindi remake was exceptional and the credit went to Aamir KhanRam Gopal Varmas Siva 1989 based on criminialisation of student politics and starring Nagarjuna was remade in Hindi with the same star cast He made several bilingual films like RaatRaatri 1992 Money in Telugu 1993 was remade in Hindi as Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega in 2001 He also made movies in Hindi and dubbed them in Telugu like Satya and Vaastu ShastraLaxman who has been associated with the business of dubbing movies recalled that many southern hits were dubbed into Hindi in 1980s and 1990s but the experiment did not prove successful in every case Lip synchronization was the toughest thing to achieve in dubbing It was a very challenging work then Now with several editing softwares available dubbing has become very easy he saidHowever realising that just dubbing a successful South movie into Hindi is not enough the filmmakers are going for multilingual movies with big budget special effects and strong content to come out with panIndia blockbusters like Baahubali KGF and PushpaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever