Bollywood has a serious rival now in India. It’s bigger, louder and is making more money than its prolific, glitzy Hindi-language cousin known for its signature dance moves and opulent wedding scenes.
A new genre of films from southern India — epic, big-budget, over-the-top action flicks, some of them served with a dollop of toxic masculinity and gory violence — are increasingly dominating the country’s $24 billion media and entertainment market, and in some cases, making their mark beyond India. Though shot in regional languages like Telugu and Kannada, they are drawing millions of viewers to theaters screening dubbed versions and to streaming platforms carrying subtitles.
At the vanguard of the movement is “RRR,” a story of two Indian freedom fighters battling British colonialists in the 1920s. It has raked in as much as $150 million worldwide, according to The Numbers website, since its release in March, while Rolling Stone magazine and some other US publications have featured glowing reviews of the movie. The “K.G.F.” and “Pushpa” action franchises garnered about $200 million in total, local media reported, following on from the wild success of a two-part mythical fantasy “Baahubali” in 2015 and 2017, which collected about a combined $290 million.
