Review of the South Indian Film Industry

 The South Indian film industry encompasses Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada cinema.

They collectively account for more than 40% box office revenue in the total revenue for Indian film industry.

South Indian film industry was there for a very long time, considerably from 1930s. But since they were only for a particular type of people, and that include only few population unlike the Hindi speaking population which was very huge, it didn't sore like Bollywood,also piracy is more in south thanks to website like movies da.

And with time frame, population of the people in these states grew and so does the box office revenues. The Era of 1990s where Rajnikanth, Kamal hassan, Mohan Lal, Anant Nag, Chiranjeevi made big names in Bollywood due to the humongous business they had done in South.

Chiranjeevi got renumeration much more than Bachchan at that time.

And with third generation stars starting to enter the industry with Mahesh Babu, Vijay, etc. Movie business started to sore high.

The Era of 2000s High octane masala films churned out in Telugu industry, Tamil was somewhat lower compared, then Kannada and Telugu. Okkadu was game changer for Telugu industry starring Mahesh babu. That film was remade into many languages.

In this period many bollywood films started to remake South Indian films, which made a great business at the box office.

The Rajnikanth, Chiranjeevi films usually contained gravity defying stunts and fights which the Bollywood audience thought amusing gained some money at the Hindi box office. The mannerisms of Rajnikanth, highly inspired those audience. But the lack of knowledge, usually made many believe that Tamil is the only industry in the south.

Some knew about Telugu. But as far as Malayalam and Kannada is considered, they weren't aware of it.

This was the time when Shankar decided to collab with the Rajnikanth. Shankar’s previous films like Anniyan and Jeans were somewhat high grosser in Telugu and Hindi speaking states.

Now with the well known face of Rajnikanth, he made the movie Shivaji the boss which broke box office records in Tamilnadu and garnered high footfalls in Mumbai and other Hindi speaking states.

This movie expanded the market of Tamil cinema to hindi speaking states and abroad. Not to mention about Rajni’s Muthu gaining money at the Japanese box office.

As far as Telugu is considered, the domestic market was enough for them, due to their large theater network and audience. They could take back more money from domestic box office itself.

Mohan Lal and Mammoty were giving tough business in Kerala and some of them were dubbed and released in Tamilnadu due to their lack of large theatre network.

Kannada Cinema usually was taking low budget high quality films and remake films from other industries. But people weren't that a movie buff compared to the other three. Not to mention about less theatre network at that time.

With expanding box office, the producers were taking high budget films since the films were in demand. Dasavatharam, the film by Kamal hassan in 2007 was made on a grand scale due to that and that film showed the true potential of Tamil film market. That's why the biggest media company of South India, the Sun network produced the Magnum opus, Enthiran supposedly paying Rajnikanth higher than SRK due to his popularity and stardom.

Enthiran made Bollywood a run for its money, grossing nearly 300 crores at that time itself. It made the collective film industry of South go high.

In the same period, the SS Rajamouli directorial Magadheera was made on a grand scale which showed the box office potential for Telugu movies. It became a highest grosser in many theatres in Tamilnadu and Mumbai.

So since the market got expanded, both the film industries started churning out masala action flicks taken on a grand scale.

Baahubali 2 not only made Bollywood, but the entire India to look at the south film industry.

It expanded markets for Telugu films like France, etc. More eyes turned towards south due to that.

Mohanlal broke the barriers of Malayalam cinema with Puli Murugan creating markets for Malayalam films. That made his next film lucifer a monster success in South as well as in Overseas.

Thanks to Goldmines Telefilms and others as they helped most by gaining large hindi audience for South cinema in this digital Era. If you want to know about how North people like our movies, just go to some random movie and check comments section.

Likewise the ever dormant market for Kannada cinema was heavily expanded by KGF. And trackers say KGF 2 will easily gross 400cr worldwide.

Bollywood changes strategy as they shifted from telling stories of our rich culture and tradition to western style story telling, with wild intimate scenes and glamour. This move doesn't suited nor had been successful in any way.

The main success of Baahubali is that it could be easily understood, connected, and told our rich history with very minimal glamour which most of the audience expect.

Now third generation stars like Vijay, Allu Arjun, Yash, Dulquer Salman, Mahesh Babu, Ajith have been making the films to reach out more and garner more attention.

Vijay starrer Bigil did a decent business in Hindi states. Saaho being absurd gained huge money from Hindi states despite failing at its own box office.

Long story short, soon you could see south Indian movies easily grossing 200 cr mark(which every Rajni, Vijay, Prabhas, Mahesh Babu movie is doing) and 300cr mark. With many Pan India releases like RRR, KGF2, Ponniyin selvan, etc and the mentality of Hindi speaking peoole of against Nepotism and Bollywood mafia we can see a resurgence of South movies in Hindi speaking states.