Flower…

Year: 1972
Film: Amar Prem
Pushpa, I hate tears…

Year: 2021/22
Pushpa, Naam sunke flower samze kya, flower nahi, fire hai mai… fire hai…

A typical day in office, late afternoon, and my colleague comes with a request- Sir Aaj Jaldi Jana Hai. This took me by surprise, so after giving a positive nod I asked him, where r u going?. He replied – we r going to see a movie.

I thought it would 83 or Sooryvanshi. Theatres were just opened after a loooooong time. So I asked him, which one?

He said, Pushpa.

I wondered what? How come they are going for a South Indian movie? Was unaware of such a movie being released. Unusual name with unusual language. As I reached home my curiosity to know about that movie was on peak. So YouTube’d  it and watched the trailer. Honestly did not like it. Dark visuals, unfamiliar language, could only see log of woods /lungis and the beards. Just switched it off…

Old perceptions of a typical South Indian film still existed in my mind… slo mo of bullets coming out of a gun, or the hero jumping in the air and kicking some 100 asses… the booty shakes etc etc  Though Bahubali had already taught all of us what movie making is all about, but alas old habits seldom die…. I had not anticipated at that time that a single flower will spell its fragrance all over the country in such opulence.

South Indian cinema reflects four film industries which are different from each other contrary to the belief.  

• Telugu known as Tollywood
• Tamil( Kollywood)
• Malayalam ( Mollywood)
• Kannada ( Sandalwood)

Living on the northern side of the country we generally tend to classify as one single entity (Madrasi), but in reality Andhra and Kerala are as different as Punjab and Bihar are…  Even the Dosas are not exactly same 

Combined share of these four industries is more than 50% of the total revenue of Indian cinema. If we look only at the pandemic years (2020 /21) , Telugu cinema had the Bahubali share of 29% of the total Indian box office collections. Out of the 10 Indian films released that year 4 came from Telugu industry… Pushpa was one of them…

Directed by Sukumar and starring the Stylish Star Allu Arjun, it was released in the month of December 2021 in multiple languages including Hindi. A month into its release it had become a sensation, a craze, amongst the audience and more importantly, the Hindi audience.

Before Bahubali, the mainstream South Indian films had no direct connect with the Hindi audience as most of them, including myself watched films on VCRs/ DVDs/ OTT , but seldom on the grandeur of a 70mm screen and too in Hindi.

The only recall of a South Indian actor was of the larger than life persona of Mr Rajnikanth. There were others also like Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna but none occupied the mind space that Rajnikanth had / has.

Rajnikanth, also known as Thalaivar came from the Tamil film industry and has a cult following all across India. Only few like Kamal Hassan and Ajith Kumar had bigger fan base which cut across their state boundaries.

Having these bigwigs in one team one would deem that Tamil industry would be the biggest, but no… The CSK here is the SRH… meaning the Telugu industry. The actor, Chiranjeevi who was the biggest earning actor even when Big B was in his prime…

Today, there are many superstars in Tollywood, like Bollywood has its Khans and the Kapoors. Tollywood has Mahesh babu, – the Greek God,  Allu Arjun, the most stylish actor. Prabhas, The Bahubali,  Pawan Kalyan, the Philanthropist , Jr NTR, and  Ramcharan. These are the Hum Panch of the industry.

So the million dollar question, what made Pushpa – The Rise work?

I am no Taran Adarsh or an Anupama Chopra but for me the SWAG did the trick.

Portrayal of the character Puspha itself was the biggest reason for it to become a national craze. The dialogues / the unusual dance moves / the music / the background score and the cinematography.  It was a proper package bundled and presented to the heartland audience. And there was as instant connect.

The connect was so close that in no time it become a national craze. Gripping the audience in its fever… No one was spared… to an extent that it travelled half of the world including Australia / Pakistan/ Bangladesh.  

Divided by boundaries, United by Pushpa…

Cricket fraternity had the most casualty :-), be it a David Warner or a Saurav Ganguly, everybody was enacting Pushpa..  The unusual Srivalli dance steps attracted lots of memes and performances.

Samantha’s Oo Antava and Rashmika’s Saami Saami heated up the mercury amongst the audience. I had my version of Pushpa Insta reel and I really had to fight a battle with my son and wife for that… You can watch it here

The film, Pushpa had many ifs and butts, literally. The lead role was first offered to Mahesh babu, but due to creative differences he opted out. Allu Arjun walked in shytle. Similarly Samantha was offered the main lead but she choose to do a song… Samantha is what Katrina is to Bollywood… and wait the song which Samantha did was first offered to Disha Patani and Nora Fateh… the former rejected for some unknown reason and the later demanded a whopping 2 cr for a song… Golmaal hai bhai sab golmaal hai..  

The South Indian film industry is driven by self-motivation and professionalism, ethically and morally very strong as compared to the Hindi film industry. I hope KJO does not read this blog otherwise he is going to sue me.. and please I am not from the Kangana gang also 

It takes some guts to give 4 to 5 years of your life spam just for one movie. Ask Prabhas and the Bahubali cast. Most importantly all these super stars are still grounded. They have not forgotten their roots contrary to some of the Bollywood gang.

Script is the soul of any film, language is a medium of expression, so when I watched Drisyham 2 in Malayalam, I did not feel alienated. Of course there were subtitles for help.

And as I write this blog, ‘RRR’ is making a huge impact at box office. Crossed Rs 100 cr in a blink. Even our Puspha did about Rs 105 cr business (Hindi version) and overall crossed Rs 300 cr of business. Loads of money…  Now all eyes are on the second part and I am keen to know how the end would be….  Will Pushpa die… or surrender … Billion dollar question..

Pushpa ka kya hoga.. or Pushpa kya karaga…

Come 2023 and we will have our answer.. Till then keep thinking…

PS: the best take away by my wife after seeing Puspha… Puspha and I have two things in common.  One is the beard and second is…

Jhukega nahi, Sala!!!