Bollywood ke bazigaro ko ek chunauti bhari bhaji khelni hogi agar unke astitva ko dashin ki bhari chunauti se bachana hai to... BY ALI PETER JOHN

It has been a game of ups and downs for the industries of bollywood and the south. In the 50s it was a one to one match with both the industries doing well for themselves - Ali Peter John

Then with the coming of big stars in bollywood like Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Dev anand and other bright stars, it was a one up game for bollywood while the industry in the South kept in the background because they didn't have the kind of glitz, glamour and glory that bollywood had.

Then again in the 60s, the south came up with stories which they now call content and these stories proved to be bigger stars than the stars from bollywood.

The craze for films made in the south was so big that renouned filmmakers from bollywood copied not only their stories but also their ways of making films and the result was grand success for hindi films made in both mumbai and the south.

Those were not the times when filmmakers either from the south or from Bollywood could even think of shooting their films across the seven seas.

But whatever it was, the south was still on the top with their own stars like Sivaji Ganeshan, Gemini Ganesan, M G Ramchandran, followed by Kamal Hassan and Rajnikant in Tamil Nadu and Mammutty and Mohan lal in malyalam and NT Rama Rao in Telugu and Dr Rajkumar in kannada.

All was well in the south and bollywood didn't mind imitating their subjects, their techniques and their stars. But with the coming of their stars into politics, their was a political move to boycott Hindi films, Hindi stars and even the Hindi language in the whole of Tamil Nadu.

There was also a successful move made by the actor turned chief minister MG Ramchandran to ban the films of dharmendra all over the state and the boycott continued till some mediators intervened and the boycott was called off, but the boycott continued for all those people who came to Tamil Nadu on a visit or on business.

No-one spoke the Hindi language, not even bus conductors, auto drivers and travel agents. Moving around and living in Tamil Nadu for hindi speakers had become a kind of curse.

This kind of an atmosphere continued till other star-politicians took the centre stage, stars like CM Annadurai, K Karunanidhi, NT Rama Rao and J Jayalalithaa took over as chief minister, but they were not as strong about their opinions about Hindi films.

In the late 70s, another strong wave of South filmmakers making films in Hindi began with Jitendra as the kingpin of the show. A whole lot of filmmakers from Tamil Nadu and Andhra built their studios in Hyderabad and made Hindi films only with Jitendra who they called Jitu gaaru (meaning jitendra brother).

Jitendra spent months and sometimes even years shooting in the studios of Hyderabad and all the well known locations.

This new game lasted for more than 10 years and Jitendra was responsible for giving 100s of people their bread and even butter and jam.

But the kind of films that were made could put anyone to shame and that was what happened when the producers from Hyderabad realised that the bollywood stars, filmmakers, writers and composers had all grown into one big gang to fleece them of their crores.

This is the time when all plans to make Hindi film in the south were called off and the entire team from Mumbai had to go back where a bleak future awaited them.

They were now neither here nor there, the south had literally thrown them out and bollywood didn't need them...

And now just during the last one of two years, the industry in the south has grown by leaps and bounds in every field of filmmaking.

The world and especially Mumbai and bollywood were taken for a big shock when director SS RAJAMAULI created a world of his own with Bahubali and then recreated his own Bahubali with another Bahubali and with the same actor and the Bahubali brand became something like a dream which couldn't have come true but had come true.

Rajamaulis became some kind of a Cecil beemillb and even makers all over the world accepted him as a genius.

And if there were men and women who felt that the Bahubali sequel was just a fluke, they didn't wait till the pandemic was over and allu arjun came up with a Mighty "sixer" with Pushpa-The rise even while the fear of pandemic was on.

And Pushpa The Rise not only became a craze but sat new standard of making films. Allu Arjun became a superstar among super stars. His fee had now grown into 100 crore for a film.

Every line and every song and every piece of action in the film became a cult and even 80 year old women were dancing to the songs of the film, whose total collection went into several crores of rupees and began a route to amazing success for other films from the south to come.

RRR had been waiting for release for more than four years, but it could only be released after the villian called COVID showed signs of running away from all heroes.

RRR with stars like Ram Charan, Jr NTR and other well known character actors and above all supposed to be powerful Cameos by Ajay Devgan and Alia Bhatt has broken all the records of over 50 years or more.

RRR is still roaring at the box office. And even as RRR was roaring its way came KGF 2, the kannada film directed by Prashant Neil and with the kannada star Yash went several steps further and broke, sorry broke shattered every box office record whether of bollywood films or any other films.

Yash was the new superstar within just 4 months. There is a slight disappointment with one big film in Telugu starring Chiranjeevi and his son Ram Charan not pairing as well as the earlier films, but the makers from the south are not going to give up easily and will not lose the opportunity they have found to build an empire of their own.

Will bollywood with all its big stars and all its big talk be in a position to face the unexpected challenge thrown at them by the giants from the south ? I personally feel that it will take bollywood a very long time to reach the standards set by their "brothers" in the south.

The three big stars from Bollywood, Amir Khan, Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan have a long way to go before even their films can be released.

Amit will have the first release in September with his eagerly awaited Lal singh Chaddha.

Salman has just two films, KABHI Eid Kabhi Diwali and Tiger Returns and there are other films in the planning and Shahrukh Khan who has returned after a long wait has films like Pathan, Lion and Dunki which are being made and may be released only around December 23 and the other stars like Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgan are still not sure about where they stand today.

The controversial filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma who has been having some issues with Bollywood recently made a statement saying that bollywood actors are jealous and scared of the stars from the south and controversial Kangna has openly said that bollywood has no chance whatsoever of taking up the challenge thrown up by the south.

Will bollywood wake up to this new and grim reality and forget all their personal and petty quarrel and join hands to make a consulted effort to save the bollywood they were so proud of once not so long ago.

All the three stars from the south who have made it big recently are still very much rooted to the ground and have not spoken about their success and the resulting popularity and have continued praising Hindi films and it's stars.

Just two days ago, Yash, the hero of KGF was heard talking on a channel in which he said that he was always in awe of Shahrukh Khan and he would continue to be his fan however much he may succeed and however big a star he may become.

This is a lesson the high and mighty stars of Bollywood who refuse to walk on the ground must learn. It may help them in saving themselves from the rut and the rot their got themselves into and for which they can't blame anyone else but themselves.

Utho jago bollywood, waqt aa gya hai badlav lane ka, aur agar tumne badlav ab nahi laaya, to ho sakta hai ki Aisa mauka tumko fir kabhi na mile