Elite Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar is one of the very few producers who recognized the potential of South films and released their Hindi dubbed versions in the North. He released ‘Baahubali’ franchise and ‘2.0’ in Hindi and made huge amounts of money. He always spoke highly of South cinema which is expanding its market at the national level lately. The pan-Indian films from South cinema like ‘RRR’, ‘KGF – 2’ and ‘Pushpa’ have shattered the records of many Hindi films and were lovely by the audience immensely.
With the sudden rise of Southern cinema, the reports of Bollywood cinema and South films locking horns with each other grew stronger. Also, a lot of big films from Hindi failed badly too leading to many claiming that Bollywood is losing its grip. During the trailer launch of his upcoming production venture ‘Jug Jugg Jeeyo’, Karan Johar spoke vastly on the performance of South films nationwide and the competition between them and Northern movies.
He said, “There is no competition between Hindi and south cinema. I was one of those filmmakers who presented ‘Bahubaali’ because I had faith in the power of cinema beyond language. There is no competition between these two industries, how can there be any? We should rather grow together. To compete would be not serving the main aim, that is, to do great business as one film industry.”
Adding to it, Karan said, “When films such as ‘RRR’, ‘Pushpa’, ‘KGF’ did great business and audience loved those films, we could proudly say that it is the achievement of the Indian cinema. Their success put our Indian cinema at a higher standard. Be it Prashanth Neel or Rajamouli sir, they in a way tried to prove the fact that our level of cinema could be that great!”
Speaking about emphasizing the word ‘Hindi’ while speaking about the film ‘Jug Jugg Jeeyo’, he clarified, “So when during the trailer launch of my film I specified the film as a ‘Hindi film’ it is a function of technicality; our Hindi film ‘Gangubai’ did well, latest released ‘Bhool Bhulaiya 2’ has got a great opening, so as a maker of the film, we want out film also to come on that list of successful film.”
Talking about crossover business, he told, “When the south has done expansive business in the north, that is the best crossover. Going to any film festival or winning the Oscar does not matter to us, we want to grow as Indian cinema, as it has been proven time and again.”
‘Jug Jugg Jeeyo’ is a typical Bollywood family entertainer that features Anil Kapoor, Neetu Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, Kiara Advani, Manish Paul and others. It is directed by Raj Mehta and the movie is all set to hit the screens on 24th June.
