While producer Naga Vamsi’s comment about the South film industry changing its approach to cinema by making Hindi filmmakers do so has sparked a heated debate on social media, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap also recently spoke on the matter. Kashyap shared his perspective, stressing on how Bollywood collectively ignored its core audience, allowing South films and their makers to corner the market.
He gave the example of his own iconic films, Gangs of Wasseypur and Mukkabaaz, which, according to him, never released properly in North India due to a wrong decision by the production studio.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter India, Anurag said, “Our audience was collectively ignored. For example, during Covid, I found out that two of my films – Gangs of Wasseypur and Mukkabaaz – which now have a very core audience in North India, were not released in North India. I found out during a distribution meeting that my North Indian films were not released across North India because the studios decided my core audience was in Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Hyderabad and that’s it.
How foolish they are.” He further added, “A theatre owner from Bihar told me that he was begging Eros (production house) to release the film in his theatre, but they refused because it takes money to create another DCP (digital cinema package) and they felt it was not worth the cost for that market.”
Explaining why South films have taken over the market in the North, with even their dubbed versions making a lot of money, Anurag said, “We make Hindi films, but we have ignored the Hindi film audience and this was taken advantage of by this guy who created the YouTube channel Goldmines, where he started picking up films from the South at cheaper rates, dubbing them and keeping that Hindi audience in mind.
And that audience grew so much that the trailer of Pushpa 2 was released in Patna.” Kashyap also highlighted how this change in audience preferences has led to a significant shift in the market. He said that the North Indian audience, which was traditionally loyal to Bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Govinda and Salman Khan, now knows and loves many South film stars.
