In an iconic sequence from Baahubali: The Beginning – elevated by stirring music – Prabhas lifts a huge Shiva lingam on his shoulders and proceeds to place it underneath a waterfall. With this scene, it would seem that the actor symbolically lifted the entire Telugu film industry and showed the entire country what it was capable of. Because of the success of the Baahubali franchise, RRR was possible, with many more attempts to exploit a bigger ‘pan-India’ market. The franchise was pathbreaking not just for Tollywood but also for Prabhas, who left an indelible mark on the Indian film industry. Nevertheless, the huge success of these films appears to have trapped the actor into focusing only on ‘pan-Indian’ films, none of which have clicked.
Prabhas’s latest release Adipurush, which released amid high anticipation, has severely disappointed fans. The big-budgeted film, released in five languages – Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada – is being heavily criticised for multiple reasons including bad special effects, its portrayal of Hindu gods, and more. With this, Prabhas has delivered three consecutive underwhelming films in the last six years. The actor’s last hit film was Baahubali: The Conclusion, in 2017. Post that, he has suffered failures with Saaho (2019), Radhe Shyam (2022), and now Adipurush. And all these movies have a common thread – they are all 'pan-India' movies that are supposed to entice all audiences and not be restricted to the Telugu states.
The series of flops have sparked a discussion on whether the actor should discard the idea of catering to a ‘pan-Indian’ audience and focus on Telugu films alone.
In his nearly 25-film career, Prabhas delivered hit films like Varsham, Chatrapathi, Billa, Darling, Mr Perfect, and Mirchi in Telugu. The Telugu audience seems to miss this part of the actor’s phase where he – like most actors – did not have to worry about catering to viewers of all regions. It’s not just about hits or misses, these weak-scripted films have dented his image, observes film critic Sangeetha Devi Dundoo.
But she disagrees with the argument that the actor should shun ‘pan-Indian’ films. “We cannot pass such a sweeping statement. All it takes is one hit to turn around the fortunes of an actor. What if tomorrow Salaar becomes a huge hit and his market value increases further?” she points out. Salaar is directed by Prashanth Neel of KGF fame. The big-budgeted film is likely to release in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada.
Actor Vijay Deverakonda too experimented with making a pan-Indian film last year. But the disaster of Liger forced the actor to do a course correction. At present, he is focusing only on Tollywood and has three Telugu films in the pipeline – Kushi, and two untitled films with directors Gowtam Naidu and Parasuram.
Take the example of Kantara, which was made solely for audiences in Karnataka. However, word of mouth encouraged the film’s producers to dub it in other languages, which made the film a sensation across the country. Some point out that Prabhas and other Telugu actors should try this strategy – make a good regional movie as opposed to making a pan-Indian film and releasing it in all languages.
Film producer Tammareddy Bharadwaj says that irrespective of the content Prabhas’s last three films, including Adipurush, have earned close to Rs 300 crore each. “So why should he abandon making films aimed at the national audience? Adipurush is also doing good business,” he says.
“If these ‘bad’ films are making Rs 300-400 crore, what will be the outcome of a good film? Adipurush itself seems to be touching Rs 1,000 crore,” Bharadwaj argues.
While Adipurush seems to be doing well at the box-office in the north Indian states, the promotion by the ruling BJP government cannot be overstated. The film was promoted by top BJP leaders like Yogi Adityanath, Devendra Fadnavis, Shivraj Chouhan, Manohar Lal, Himanta Biswas, Pushkar Singh Dhami, and Narotam Mishra, among others.
Sangeetha cautions against an approach where the content is not scrutinised. “The fans are putting on a brave face and promoting Adipurush because they cannot publicly admit the failure of their star. It is true that many are upset with Prabhas’s film choices. They have been pleading with directors to write better scripts.”
Though Prabhas enjoys a loyal fan base in the Telugu states, he is at the risk of losing his market value with his poor script choices, Sangeetha says.