I do agree with points of TM and I do think it is a combination of factors. If South actors would not make a mark then we would not have Padmini, Vyjaanthimala, Rekha, Sridevi, Hema Malini, Vidya Balan, Deepika Padukone , Aishwarya Rai who have distinct South Indian features make a mark and in some cases even rule BW.
But notice a theme there, I could not come up with a single South Indian male name who made a huge impact in BW. Not even the great Kamal Hassan who is the one who has the highest number of films from India submitted to the foreign Oscars. Why ? IMO a combination of factors.
I don't know much about Kannada, but I do about Tamil, Telugu and to a lesser extent Malayalam.
Select South Superstars like Mammooty, Mohanlal, Kamal Hassan, even Nagarjuna's filmography usually have more versatility than their BW counterparts from period films to even horror to masala, romantic and so on. I am not even touching people like Sivaji Ganesan, Akkineni Nageshwara Rao who were giants in acting and were recognized world wide for their acting and even awarded the Chevalier award in the case of Sivaji Sir.
In the South looks apparently don't matter, if not people like Thalaiva would not be as big as he is 😆. I would absolutely say stories and subjects tackled and generally quality of films made are better. Even masala films. BW seems to be getting worse in quality.
Finally audience. South films have huge international audiences rivaling BW. I am of South Indian descent not living in India and grew up on South Indian films, not BW. Even now my BW exposure is very limited compared to the South. I do not know anything really about Dilip Kumarji, Sanjeev Kumar ji and so on because I was not exposed to them. Most of my filmography is the 3 Khans mostly and Raj Kapoor and select newbies. Not even Akki or Hrithik that much. There are many people like me in India and abroad who are film buffs without having any idea about a lot of BW really.
One can have a very nice career with hit films, even the recently famous 100 crore films with an international audience in the South. I can name actor after actor who have production companies or in some cases even studios and they have complete creative control. Nagarjuna of Telugu is one such example. Kamal Hassan has from a long time even has control over his costumes though he usually does it under the guise of the wife du jour's name. 😛. South films routinely make weekly top 20 lists and in some cases even top 10 lists in the UK and US. If South actors have so much to look forward to in terms of audience, creative control, subject matter and so on, they do not really feel the need to go to BW IMO.
Edited by meribaat - 11 years ago
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