These days all the South movies are made on multi-crore budgets and released in four languages (Hindi included). A week ago, it was Mashesh Babu produced and Adivi Sesh written-performed Major. The pre publicity of the film was tremendous but the Hindi version did not live up to the hype. The Telegu version, I hear is a super success but the producers are still hopeful for the Hindi version. The latest to join the bandwagon is 777 Charlie.
Everywhere I go, people ask me why this sudden craze for South movies? My answer is the attraction always existed, only we were never aware of it. Superstar Shivaji Ganesh was always curious about what films Dilip Kumar was doing in the 50s and the 60s and Meena Kumari featured in almost all the remakes of Southern superstar Savitri. The superstars met each other if they were in their cities but there was no social media then, so the information was not public.
In the 70s the copyright was not an issue as it is today and Rajnikant regularly rehashed all Bachchan super hits into Tamil blockbusters. Come 80s and South production houses got big time into Hindi films. They had made films in the past too but now our stars, Jeetendra, Rekha, Rajesh Khanna was parked in Madras for months! This was also the time when Sridevi and Jaya Prada were launched in Bollywood and the craze continued till the 90s. In 2000 Baahubali happened. Then Pushpa happened and then RRR and KGF 2. It has taken more than 100 years but finally, Indian cinema has blurred lines of languages and combined so Hollywood better watch out!