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Prabhas' Baahubali franchise, Yash's KGF and Allu Arjun's Pushpa are among the biggest Indian blockbusters. All these South movies scripted box office records and made the actors pan-India stars, apart from offering them global exposure and worldwide recognition. Interestingly, all these movies performed remarkably well in the Hindi belt and earned more in Hindi than in the original language. Well, recently, Tollywood King Nagarjuna Akkineni said that Baahubali, KGF and Pushpa had nothing new to offer. He also revealed the 'formula' to make blockbusters.
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Baahubali, KGF and Pushpa Had Nothing New To Offer!
At the WAVES Summit 2025, Nagarjuna, who has headlined several blockbusters over the decades, said that movies including Baahubali, KGF, and Pushpa had nothing new to offer to the audience in the South. On the other hand, the audience in the North wanted to see larger-than-life heroes.
The Brahmastra actor said, "Both the Pushpa films made more money in the North than in Telugu. We have seen similar stories in Telugu before, like Pushpa, which had larger-than-life heroes. Whereas, in the North- Bihar, UP, and Punjab- they wanted to see their heroes like Pushparaj, Yash in KGF, or Baahubali."
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"They wanted to see larger-than-life-heroes. For Indian people and culture, just living day-to-day is difficult, and when they want to overcome the stress by watching films, they want to see magic on screen," he added.
Nagarjuna Reveals 'Formula' to Make Blockbusters
Furthermore, Nagarjuna revealed the 'formula' to make blockbusters
He said, "That's what the larger-than-life stories are doing, without losing the fundamentals of Indian storytelling. They are not going away from that, which is why they have been successful. Rajamouli shot Baahubali frame to frame, thinking it was a Telugu film. He was very proud of his roots and language, and he shot it like a Telugu film, and people loved it across the world! If you are rooted to your storytelling, it will resonate."
Indian Films' Unique Storytelling DNA!
While speaking on the panel discussion 'Pan-Indian Cinema: Myth or Momentum?', the Mr Bechara actor said that Indian films have their own unique storytelling DNA.
"You might say, 'A guy raises his fist and 20 people fall, it looks abnormal!' But, if you like Marvel or DC films, Superman does the same thing, but they give the logic of them having 'superpowers'. But, we don't need those special powers," said Nagarjuna.
He added, "The common man, a ticket-paying audience, including me, wants to watch my heroes larger-than-life. When I see Prabhas, Allu Arjun and others going on screen and doing what they do, I clap and whistle."
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The Khuda Gawah actor also said that if the films work in 'your' language, they will organically work everywhere.
