The new trend in cinema is ‘pan-Indian’ being used to refer to films in regional languages that are emerging as superhits, watched by people across the country. Thus many think that describing a film as ‘pan-Indian’ is actually a compliment. The trend has been set by Director S. S. Rajamouli, who’s had a big role in pushing the idea of pan-Indian films forward.
The rise of the pan-Indian film to success goes to Rajamouli’s ‘Baahubali’ movies. Since the first one came out in 2015, Indian audiences have seen every other big-budget movie being advertised as ‘pan-Indian’ in bold letters. And recent films like Pushpa,KGF, and RRR have recreated the trend.
This pan-India cinema phenomenon is nothing new, K. Asif’s 1960 Classic Mughal-e-Azam and the 1965 Malayalam hit Chemmeen were the earliest pan-india films. While the trend had slowed down in between, the new generation of stars seems to be reviving the idea. Calling it the “pan-India” film for maximum reach, many new-generation stars from North and South are coming together in some of the biggest ventures, over the coming months. The idea, of course, is to maximise the audience base and revenues at a time uncertainty is ruling over the film business.
The trend has ensured such films are released in multiple languages such as Hindi, Tamil Telugu, and Malayalam, which helps in reaching out to a bigger audience. This, in turn, helps stars gain fandom beyond their own respective region.
