Taapsee Pannu spoke about the emergence of South Indian films in Hindi-speaking territories, and said that it’s easier for south actors to cross over into the North now than it was for her a decade ago.
Actor Taapsee Pannu said that South Indian films are ‘as good or bad’ as they always were, and it’s only that Hindi-speaking audiences just now have ‘woken up’ to diverse cinema. So, while audiences are the world are only now experiencing director SS Rajamouli’s films, people in India always knew that he was capable of making RRR, she said.
Taapsee attended a recent BFI screening of her upcoming film Dobaaraa, and was joined by director Anurag Kashyap and co-star Pawail Gulati. She was asked about the emergence of South Indian cinema, as someone who has worked across languages in India. Taapsee said that most of all, the landscape has changed for actors, and in many ways, it’s easier for people to cross over into the North than it was for her, a decade ago.
She said, “These kinds of films were made back then also, but maybe the budgets weren’t as high as Rajamouli’s Baahubali and RRR. But films that were considered ‘regional’ at that time were equally good. The same kind of stuff that was happening 10 years back, when I started, and it’s just that the Hindi audience is waking up to it because of this crossover, and a lot of credit goes to the OTT world…”
Taapsee continued, “The films are still as good or bad as they were back then. So, I don’t see any difference in the quality of films that they are making. It’s not like suddenly they are making something different. You see Magadheera, he’s made some fabulous films before as well. That man can make even Makkhi a hero. RRR is like, ‘obviously, he can do this’.”
She said that actors, however, have it easier than she did when she was trying to break into the Hindi industry. “It has changed a lot for actors, because eight years back when I started out in Hindi, I was called a ‘South Indian actress’, and people used to tell me to wash off that image if I really want to make it big in Hindi. I had to start from scratch, even though I hail from Delhi… I had worked with some really incredible names there, which I was really proud of, and I worked my way up… And I had to start from scratch. Unlike now. All these big stars, thanks to OTT, satellite and theatrical release, are big stars even for Hindi audiences, right from the first film itself. So, they don’t have to work their way up, like I had to 10 years back,” Taapsee said.
South Indian films such as KGF: Chapter 2, RRR, and last year’s Pushpa: The Rise have outperformed some of the biggest Hindi language films in recent months, leading to concern within the industry about the audience’s changing tastes.
Source:indianexpress.com