Prabhas the only South Star with pan-Indian appeal as Rajini moves to politics

 

The hot topic in South filmdom is `Will Prabhas be the sole pan Indian Star from South after Rajinikanth enters politics ?.’ In short, film industry feels that Prabhas would replace Rajinikanth even in the Tamil Nadu – Kerala movie markets. The signing of the actor by the producers of KGF for their next is seen as a signal in that direction.Though the popularity of Rajinikanth with his hardcore masses and fans will remain intact, his full time commitment to politics will keep him away from films. This space needs to be filled up as it is an annual Rs 200 cr market  that is up for grabs. The Tamil market will no doubt be filled up by Thalapathy Vijay. However, Vijay cannot make  the bucks that Rajinikanth film makes outside Tamil Nadu. After Enthiran 2.0 , Rajinikanth holds the record of the highest grossing film. Even a film like Darbaar in Hindi saw a record viewing in the TV satellite and ranks among the top 5 of Bollywood till date this year.Now let’s take Prabhas box office. Courtesy Bollywood Hungama

Movie Name	Release Date	Opening Day [ INR cr. ]	Opening Weekend [ INR cr. ]	End of Week 1 [ INR cr. ]	Lifetime [ INR cr. ]	Verdict
Saaho	30 Aug 2019	24.40	79.08	116.03	142.95	Hit
Baahubali 2 – The Conclusion	28 Apr 2017	41	128	247	510.99	All Time Blockbuster
Bahubali – The Beginning	10 Jul 2015	5.15	22.35	46.77	118.7	Blockbuster

 

Now let’s read a report in TOI indiatimes.com - "Prabhas has four major projects lined up for the coming years. He is busy wrapping up the shoot of KK Radha Krishna Kumar’s romantic entertainer, Radhe Shyam. His another is a period mythological drama, titled Adipurush which will have him in the title role. Set to go on floors in February next year, the film will be directed by Om Raut of Tanhaji fame and produced by Retrophiles Pvt. Ltd in association with T-Series. Saif Ali Khan and Kriti Sanon will reportedly be cast of the project. He will also be seen playing a never-seen-before avatar for the first time in an action saga Salaar to be directed by Prashanth Neel of KGF fame. The project will be bankrolled by Homebale Films".

KGF 1 made Yash a pan Indian Star to come from Karnataka, a first. Though many South actors starting from Kamal Haasan onwards to Mammooty, Mohanlal and many others acted in Hindi, a box office success that went beyond Thane – Dombilivi ( in Mumbai Bollywood trade parlance) never happened. First to breach it was Rajinikanth and then Prabhas. Rajinikanth has four months to get his party men battle ready for the May polls. He has already told Sun TV  that he would complete the underproduction film Annathe before he goes off for polls.

Even now a majority of the film trade and political circles are not willing to believe that Superstar would take to full time politics. They feel that he might start the political outfit but shirk away from State poll and buy time saying he wants to fight the Lok Sabha polls.