Allu Arjun goes where no other South Hero has gone before

Pushpa Hero Allu Arjun Goes Where No Other South Hero Has Gone Before

Sunday 02 January 2022 22.00 IST

Box Office India Trade Network

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Pushpa (Hindi) is on a huge box office run and in this run it is doing something that has never happened before. There have been many heroes who have come from the South since the days of Kamal Hassan with Ek Duuje Ke Liye in 1981 and the impact has always been muted barring the odd film here or there which works due to the content. 

The regular good openings never materialised and more than that appreciation for the actor and performance was missing at an all India level. This was the case even with three biggest imports from the South be it Kamal Hassan, Rajnikant or Chiranjeevi. These heroes found some likeability in two states and these were Maharashtra and Odisha, the films outperformed here be it hit or flop and appreciation was also more but the shackles outside these states could no be broken. The trend is pretty much the same today and even Pushpa (Hindi) started far better in Maharashtra and Odisha .

But then slowly the situation started to change as Gujarat / Saurashtra started doing BLOCKBUSTER numbers after a week or so. The initial was missed here but post second week it can compare with some of the biggest Hindi films in Gujarat / Saurashta and this week will see third week collections which can challenge the biggest Hindi BLOCKBSUTERS. 

More than the box office it is the likeabilty this hero Allu Arjun is seeing in the belt and its pretty certain no South actor has seen this before in the Gujarat belt. There was Kamal Hassan in Ek Dujje Ke Liye and Prabhas in Bahubali films which were fantastic and loved in Gujarat but those films were also far superior to Pushpa and appreciattion was a lot to do the films as well.  

There are these videos going around about how audiences are going crazy over 83 but obviously these are selected and a PR exercise but what is happening in Gujarat / Saurashtra with Allu Arjun is genuinely a craze as many scenes are genuinely getting a huge response but when its genuine there is no need for an PR exercise. The next film will automatically tell the story. This is the sort of response that the South actors before have seen in Maharashtra and Odisha only. Here with Pushpa Maharashtra and Odisha is there also but Gujarat / Saurashtra is the plus which has never happened before for any South actor. The craze is such in Gujarat / Saurashtra that the Hindi film 83 is getting overflow of Pushpa as many multiplexes see housefull shows. 

Films can work and become HITS but that appreciation and the crowds liking you is a different ball game. Its like Hum Aapke Hain Koun is the biggest BLOCKBUSTER of Salman Khan's career but the sort of appreciation that came from the public in Dabangg cannot be matched by Hum Aapke Hain Koun. Allu Arjun has basically gone out of the zone as far as South actors go which gives him some potential to be the biggest import ever from the South. More than HITS its the likeability for whatever reason which gives the chance to go further. Obviously it depends on whether you are interested in making an impact at an all India level and how you can push without neglecting your core market in Andhra Pradesh.  

Its a difficult task as there are huge regional differences and the cinema that works in a Hindi circuits will probably not work in Andhra or Tamil Nadu barring an exception here or there and it will be vice versa also. This sort of appreciation has never happened for a South star in history and even here we sort of expected Maharashtra and Odisha can always come on as history says so but Gujarat / Saurashtra is a surprise especially as the film is not a great film like the Bahubali films.

In the South they probably take all of the Hindi market as North India which is not the case and if a big south superstar actually makes it in what is actually North India then that actor would be the biggest star India has ever seen with no arguement. Allu Arjun is looking a star across all of West India post Pushpa which is better than any South actor before and now its about where you want to take this popularirty and can you spread it further. More than where you want to take it is how do you actually do it

Originally posted by: Nonpareil

Did you watch Pushpa? How is it?