Ask anyone who is not an Indian about Indian cinema and they’ll tell you it is called Bollywood. Most often, the fact that India is home to several vibrant film industries is not recognised.
Shaking away this idea is American actor Winston Duke, well-known for his role as the cool yet fearsome Jabari Mountain tribe leader in Marvel’s Black Panther. The film that released early this year has become the highest grossing films of 2018.
The actor recently professed his love for Tollywood, a lesser known cinema industry from India. And his choice of film? The Baahubali franchise of course!
Winston posted stories on his official Instagram handle with pictures from one of the highest grossing Indian films - Baahubali. Captioning it as one of his favourite films, and although he did use the hashtag #Bollywood4Life, he also explains Tollywood. “Baahubali is actually a Tollywood film! Telugu Cinema, also known as Tollywood, is a segment of Indian cinema based in South-East India,” he wrote. The actor also used ‘lit’ and ‘King’ emojis for scenes that had Prabhas.
Screenshots courtesy: Facebook/Baahubali
The Tobogonian actor made his feature film debut in Black Panther that gained him a lot of popularity. His famous dialogue, “If you say one more word, I'll feed you to my children! […] I'm kidding. We're vegetarians,” left the audience in splits. This dialogue also turned the tables on the decades-long white-black:hero-sidekick formula. Winston will also be seen reprising his role for Marvel’s Avengers: The Infinity War.
Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) and Baahubali: The Conclusion (2017) were directed by Indian director SS Rajamouli. The films received rave reviews worldwide and were released in different languages. The films are also referred to as the biggest hits in the history of Indian cinema. Starring Prabhas in the title role, the film also stars Anushka Shetty, Tamannaah, Ramya Krishnan, Rana Daggubati, Sathyaraj, Sudeep and others.