From 'Andhaa Kaanoon' to 'War 2': Increase in South-Hindi collaboration over the years

For years, Bollywood has been the face of cinema in India. In recent years, this has changed drastically. Regional cinema, especially Telugu and Tamil cinema, has jumped ahead, completely changing the landscape of Indian cinema and cinema in general.

What once were considered "regional" films are now, in many cases, driving the pan-India box office. There have been some memorable collaborations between Hindi cinema and the South.

Early days of collaboration

One of the earliest and most iconic Bollywood-South partnerships was 'Andhaa Kaanoon' released in 1983, which starred Rajnikanth alongside Amitabh Bachchan who made a brief appearance and Hema Malini in a key role. It showed that South stars could also thrive in the Hindi belt.Then there was 'Hum' released in 1991. Directed by Mukul S. Anand, the movie brought together the magical trio of Amitabh Bachchan and Govinda, and Rajinikanth.

Remakes and shared stories

We saw that in the early 2000s and the 2010s there was a trend in Bollywood of remaking some of the hits from the Tamil and Telugu cinema. The release of 'Ghajini' starring Aamir Khan, directed by AR Murugadoss, who was the original director as well. The only difference was the climax of the film, which was tailored for the Hindi audience and made the ending emotional and hard-hitting.

The movie became the first Hindi film to reach the Rs 100 crore mark in India.

Then a year later, the film, 'Wanted', another remake of the Tollywood blockbuster 'Pokiri' starring Mahesh Babu was released for the Hindi audience. The film was headlined by none other than Bollywood's Bhaijaan Salman Khan. The movie directed by Prabhu Deva not only became a commercial hit, creating a mass appeal of Salman Khan but also became a revival of Salman Khan's career in action films.

Similarly, Akhshay Kumar's 'Rowdy Rathore' also became one of the biggest films of his career which was also adapted from a Telugu hit.Natural Star Nani, who has been receiving love from the North belt in recent years, especially after his 'Hi Nanna', while speaking with DNA India, also shared how Bollywood has received love for decades. "The love South cinema is receiving now is recent. But the love Bollywood has received in the South has been there for decades.

If you ask anyone there, 'What's your favourite Hindi film?', they will have childhood memories of Amitabh Bachchan," he said.

South Indian stars have also made a huge impact in Bollywood. Notably, Tamil superstar Dhanush made his Hindi debut with 'Raanjhanaa', directed by Aanand L. Rai. The movie was a talking point at the time, which co-starred Soman Kapoor as the female lead. It collected over almost Rs 94 crore worldwide as per Sacnilk. In recent years we have seen the volumes of Bolly-South collaboration increasing. In the 2022 mega hit 'RRR' directed by ace filmmaker SS Rajamouli, Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgan played key roles, while Deepika Padukone and Amitabh Bachchan were also seen in leading roles in 'Kalki 2898 AD' also starring Prabhas and Kamal Haasan.

Southern stars in Bollywood

The 'Sir' actor later also worked with Bollywood Shahenshah Amitabh Bachchan in 'Shamitabh'.

In another blockbuster we saw Rajnikanth and Akshay Kumar in a massive sci-fi sequel, '2.0' directed by Shankar.Shah Rukh Khan's 'Jawan' which was helmed by 'Theri' director Atlee. The movie included South superstars Nayanthara and Vijay Sethupathi collecting more than Rs 1000 crore at the box office making it the biggest film of the year 2023. Another big Khan of the three, Salman Khan's 'Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan', an adaptation of the Tamil hit 'Veeram', included prominent roles for Telugu veterans Venkatesh and Jagapathi Babu.Actor Vivek Oberoi, speaking with India Today said, "It takes writing from an Atlee and team to create the magic of 'Jawan' for a megastar like Shah Rukh Khan. ‘Pathaan’ was a slick, cool action movie that I enjoyed but 'Jawan' was evocative of the pure masala cinema of the greats like Manmohan Desai. The emotional power of southern films, their audacity to imagine, portray and convincingly display the impossible on screen to a pan-India audience is incredible.

"

In 2024 Malayalam superstar Prithviraj Sukumaran also played the main antagonist of Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff starrer 'Bade Miyan Chote Miyan' and the year also showed us a reunion of Rajinikanth and Amitabh Bachchan in 'Vettaiyan' and this year Jr NTR marked his Bollywood debut with Hrithik Roshan in 'War 2' which clashed with another big budget film, 'Coolie' starring Rajinikanth and interestingly Aamir Khan made a special appearance in the movie.

Sunny Deol's action drama 'Jaat' was directed by Gopichand Malineni.