The debate on who is a pan-India star has reignited after the contrasting fortunes of Prabhas' Adipurush and Shah Rukh Khan's Pathaan at the box office.
Adipurush took the strongest start by any Indian film this year. It’s day one numbers even dwarfed Pathaan’s record collections, something that was unthinkable a few months ago. This led to a few premature tributes to Prabhas’ pan-India stardom. Then came Monday and it all came crashing down. The tributes turned into premature obituaries of Prabhas’ stardom now. Maybe we are quick to jump to conclusions.
Prabhas has consistently been the most pan-India present star in the last few years. Baahubali has done him a world of favours. Saaho, Radhe Shyam, and Adipurush all had decent openings in their Hindi versions. But none managed to sustain the momentum. Prabhas’ pull in the north is not as strong to call him the number one pan-India star.
Some may argue Shah Rukh deserves the tag. After all Pathaan was a monumental success. But then, Pathaan’s success was largely in Hindi. Yash Raj Films did try to capitalise on the pan-India fad and released it in Tamil and Telugu too. Pathaan earned Rs 524 crore in Hindi and a combined Rs 18 crore in the other two languages. Not quite the pan-India pull one would hope for.
Yash, him of KGF-fame, is perhaps the only other contender for the tital right now, given KGF 2’s massive success in Hindi. But one film does not a pan-India superstar make. A single pan-India hit can be chalked down to a number of reasons. If only one repeats that success can they be called a veritable pan-India superstar. Rajinikanth, in the past, has done wonders nationally with films like Enthiran and 2.0, but his recent films have failed to set the cash registers ringing in the Hindi belt. The same can be said for Kamal Haasan and Chiranjeevi too.
To be honest, there is only one man who has managed to do that and he is not even an actor. SS Rajamouli is the only pan-India superstar we have right now. He showed his mettle with Baahubali, emphasised it with Baahubali 2, and then put a giant seal of approval on that term with RRR. The first Baahubali netted over Rs 100 crore in both Hindi and Telugu. The second one earned over Rs 500 crore in Hindi, Rs 338 crore in Telugu, Rs 125 crore in Tamil, and Rs 55 crore in Malayalam. RRR followed suit with similar pan-India success, adding Kannada to the mix too. Rajamouli’s films have managed to succeed all over India, in all regions, in all languages, something no other filmmaker or star is consitsently managing to do.
His next stars Mahesh Babu, an actor already known across the country. The recipe is there for another pan-India success. But whether that film will do the kind of wonders that Rajamoulis’ previous films have, only time (and content) will tell. In the meantime, SRK will look to establish his pan-India credentials with Jawan (Nayanthara and Vijay Sethupathi’s presence will help), and Prabhas will attempt the same with Project K and Salaar. The likes of Ram Charan and Jr NTR will also attempt to capitalise on RRR’s success with their next titles. Interesting times ahead indeed for the pan-India debate.
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