Regular mass-action movies are not performing well in the North Indian belt. Recently, even dubbed Telugu films have struggled to recover basic expenses, regardless of the star power involved. This has been a significant setback for Telugu cinema in North India. Tapping into markets like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, UP, and Bihar is no easy feat, as the audience’s tastes differ greatly, making it hard to establish a connection with the local nativity.
In Tollywood, dubbing every film into Hindi and releasing it in the North has become a trend, sometimes leading to no theatrical release. The “Pan-India” craze took off after Rajamouli’s Baahubali and RRR and was further fueled by Allu Arjun’s Pushpa. However, the reason Telugu films are not succeeding in the North lies in their weak content.
Examples of underperforming movies include Ram Pothineni’s Skanda, Ravi Teja’s Tiger Nageswara Rao, Vijay Devarakonda’s Khushi, Bellamkonda Srinivas’s Chatrapati, and Puri Jagannadh’s Double iSmart. These mass-market action films have been outright rejected by North Indian audiences. In contrast, the North is more receptive to films with period settings, socio-fantasy elements, and supernatural thrillers, which explains why films like Baahubali, RRR,Kalki, Karthikeya 2, and Hanuman have succeeded in these regions.