Tollywood makers on Pan India word abused
Over the last few years, ever since the sensation of Rajamouli's Baahubali, everyone started talking about Pan India projects, Pan India stars etc.
In the midst of all this, Nani who is promoting his film The Paradise, speaking to scribes said “Stop using the term ‘Pan-India.’ It’s an overused and abused term. Paradise will be released in all languages, but our target is mainly the Telugu market,”
A top producer says “Nani has got it right. It is not just overused anymore — it is misused,” He adds “The Pan-India tag is being used even for smaller films and non-star projects. Telugu actors and filmmakers need to realise that the North Indian market is not waiting to buy every Telugu film. Those days are gone. Instead, they should focus on their core strength — the Telugu audience.”
He continued “I would like to see actors such as Vijay Deverakonda with Ranabali, Nikhil Siddhartha with Swayambhu, Naga Chaitanya with Vrushakarma and Vishwak Sen with Legacy focus strongly on winning the Telugu audience first. If the content works here, other markets will naturally follow,”
Producer Ravi Shankar Yalamanchili says “I agree that regional cinema and Hindi cinema are two different segments, and we need to understand that difference," He added “A Telugu film may initially be planned at around ₹50 crore. But once the Pan-India label is attached, the budget can increase four to five times because the makers start thinking about multiple markets, bigger stars, wider releases and larger production values. That makes recovery much more difficult,”
He continued “That is the kind of model Telugu producers and directors should seriously look at,” and said “There are so many stories that can be made within Telugu budgets and still become commercially successful. We need more films like Irumudi rather than automatically turning every project into a Pan-India production.”
A Hindi distributor says “Prabhas and Allu Arjun have created a clear identity in the Hindi market, but that does not mean every Telugu star can replicate it,” He adds “The Hindi audience remains strongly attached to its own stars, with names like Sunny Deol, Ranbir Kapoor, Ranveer Singh and Akshay Kumar continuing to command attention. Telugu stars and filmmakers need to rethink their strategy rather than assuming the Pan-India tag itself will bring audiences.”
---- Pramod Nandivada
