TV
Allu Arjun’s Pushpa 2 has become a national rage, breaking all the records of previous releases. Within just four days, Pushpa: The Rule has collected more than 800 crore worldwide, proving that Bunny is indeed a pan-India superstar. Before Allu Arjun, Prabhas, with two Baahubali movies, established superstardom across the country.
Although the movies that followed Baahubali, like Saaho and Radhe Shyam, could not collect the same revenue, Salaar 1 did manage to get a humungous start and was declared a super hit. Even movies like Radhe Shyam and Adipurush, which disappointed with their low-quality content, received good openings just because they are Prabhas movies.
Surprisingly, even big Bollywood superstars like Ajay Devgn and Akshay Kumar have failed to draw audiences to the theaters despite huge publicity and hype. Ditto with Yash, who became a well-known face with KGF and then later consolidated his pan-India popularity with KGF 2. Yash, who earlier had an identity as a Sandalwood actor, is now a pan-India superstar, with the majority of fans in the northern belt calling him their favourite Rocky Bhai.
Unfortunately, this fame and popularity have eluded big Bollywood stars like Ranveer Singh, Varun Dhawan, Shahid Kapoor, and even Ranbir Kapoor. Although they are quite well known in the Hindi-speaking belt, these B-town actors do not have a huge following in the Southern belt.
On the other hand, Southern superstars like Allu Arjun, Prabhas , and Yash are now almost equally popular in both northern and southern regions. The record-breaking opening that Pushpa 2 received or the way fans have responded to Kalki 2898 AD is proof that these three stars are today’s Aamir, Salman, and Shah Rukh Khan.
While these three Khans ruled Bollywood for more than two decades, Prabhas, Allu Arjun and Yash will have to be consistent to represent the legacy of the Khans. Even then, looking at the current level of popularity there is no doubt that the Southern trio has taken over other Bollywood stars and promise a long run.
