Go easy on ‘South invasion’, okay?

What good is a theory if you instantly agree with it And so I summarily dismissed one by a Bollywood insider around mid 2020 when news channels and consequently desi social media were going nuts accusing the entire mainstream Bombay film industry of essentially being a bunch of drugaddled louts spreading a nonsensical nonsanskari cultureMost of those being disparaged without reason were really hardworking artistesentrepreneurs from across India in a cosmopolitan Bombay Who over generations had dedicated themselves to creatively entertain peoplemdashno less no more Irsquom talking of the noise around the time of staractor Sushant Singh Rajputrsquos deathSome of this unusual blanket hate had naturally percolated among regular public as wellmdashwho began to see Bollywood stars etc as hardly folks to look up toThis is because the insider told me there were no theatres for the public to really look up to them Implying the previous irrational love itself had everything to do with the size of the screen those stars appeared in anywayThe theatres were the first to shut and the last to reopen during the pandemicmdashacross most Hindi speaking states in the home of Bollywood that is Maharashtra in particularNot as much the case with say Tamil and Telugu cinemas that delivered major local hits Master Sulthan Uppena Vakeel Saab even between the pandemicrsquos first and second wave Herersquos whatrsquos uncontested about regular mainstream TamilTelugu film industries regardless That they barely have to draw in masses for new releases in the same way that Bollywood doesThe male hero is the North Star The public goes to theatresmdashbecause itrsquos there The heroine can be easily from Bollywoodmdashso the crosspollination has always existed Even if the films are often more unabashed about kitsch with a debatable touch of oldworld sexism and a worldcreation inherently quite separate from the world itselfAlso Tamil and Telugu single screens in particular have coexisted with multiplexes Unlike in many Hindi speaking states Although what became clear over time is that universal audiences in desi expensive multiplexes were by and large no different from those at cheaper standalone cinemas Flocking towards experiential entertainment and movies from anywhere Hollywood more so being the global unifierAnd yet in Bollywood before the pandemic struck a series of medium budget movies kept doing hugely well in theatres for people to go lsquocontent is kingrsquo lsquoscript is godrsquo etc Over two years after theatres opened to full capacity nationwidemdashbunch of Hindi films bombed and everywhere I go I only hear lsquoBollywood is screwed whatrsquoll they makersquoThat lsquoOTT is the new multiplexrsquo Does look like it when you step into the 2022 slate announcement party of merely one such OTT platform Amazon Prime Video All you see around is actually topline Bollywood producers Karan Johar Rohit Shetty others offering their talents for its annual harvest of 41 films plus shows Something that wouldrsquove been natural ground for the TV industry given it is home entertainment after all Only the benchmarkingbudgeting is film And thatrsquos where Bollywood isWhat about cinemas Most loudly you hear there is invasion from the South going on in Hindi marketsmdashand that the ldquoSouth guysrdquo understand desi audiences better Why Because three films cracked it backtoback creating such a thing as a lsquopan Indian filmrsquo As if Hindi films havenrsquot gone panIndia before the pandemicWhat do Bollywoodrsquos traditional distribution circuitsterritories lsquoMysorersquo Bengaluru parts of Karnataka lsquoNizamrsquo including Telangana parts of Karnataka Andhra Tamil Nadu signify if not a panIndia releaseEqually calling two films in Telugu Baahubali directorrsquos RRR Allu Arjun starrer Pushpa and another in Kannada sequel of the hit KGF as lsquoSouthrsquo is like deeming everyone from below the Vindhyas lsquoMadrasirsquomdasha popular slang that I suspect originates from Madras PresidencyProvince that included most of southern India during British ruleOnly that a Malayalam movie is probably as different from a typical Telugu film as socalled lsquoBollywoodrsquo is from arthouse Iranian cinema Malayalam movies found universal critical acclaim and filmbuff appeal through OTT platforms chiefly during the pandemicLikewise theatre owner Akshaye Rathi from Nagpur during a panel discussion I just had to participate in says Telugu cinema from AndhraTelanganamdashthat also border Maharashtra Odisha Chhattisgarhmdashfound specific cultural resonance through cablesatellite television over the past decadeSo whatrsquos changed for everyone to go lsquoBollywood is screwedrsquo Nothing says G Dhananjayan multilingual producer from Chennai in the same discussion Making me think of this phase as two years of Ramzan ending with people starved of bigscreen entertainmentmdashsimply desperate for something seriously larger than life to break their fast withldquoThe films Pushpa RRR KGF2 had been held back from release The theatres opened and people rushed in Bollywood had nothing of the same scale to offer If you look at Telugu cinemarsquos slate for the whole of next year there is nothing in it that will repeat the success eitherrdquoThe only thing he worries about with cinemas from India merging across theatresmultiplexesmdashand thankfully creating more blockbuster choices for the programmermdashis remakes Dhananjayan says he has bought rights of four such films ldquoBollywood has around 2025 remakes lined uprdquo Those might go kaput of course Hindi movies of all kinds wonrsquot CanrsquotMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper