By Deshani Samaragunarathna
“Telugu is the new Hindi.”
Ram Gopal Varma
Unlike the American cinema, there is no single film hub in the Indian subcontinent. Bollywood has long held the distinction of being India’s “national cinema.” With stars such as Priyanka Chopra making forays into Hollywood and artistes like A. R Rahman winning Academy Awards, there is no denying that Bollywood has made massive inroads to the global film industry.
Even more intriguingly, India’s other film industries, relegated to “regional” status given their perceived lack of spectacle and star power, are on the rise as well.
Indeed, this year’s biggest hits have come from so-called regional cinema, primarily from South India. RRR, an epic Telegu film about two revolutionaries fighting the British Raj, made history by becoming the country’s first Golden Globe winner. Naatu Naatu, the film’s catchy musical number, won the award for the Best Original Song, beating stalwarts like Taylor Swift and Rihanna.
The song had been shot in 2021 in front of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky’s official residence. A. R. Rahman called its win a “paradigm shift”, while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the team, saying the “prestigious honor has made every Indian very proud.”
Audiences have increasingly started to consume Tamil (Kollywood), Telugu (Tollywood), Kannada (Sandalwood), Malayalam, and Marathi-language films at home and proceeded to post about them on social media. Interestingly, unlike the usual trend of remaking South Indian films into Bollywood, films like Gajini, Singham, and Kabir Singh have been made available on OTT platforms since the outbreak of COVID-19, allowing viewers to enjoy the diversity of India in the comfort of their homes.
In fact the South cinema is sizzling, with Tollywood releases such as the romantic comedy Geetha Govindam, whose heroine Rashmika Mandanna has been crowned as the “National Crush of India”, and the epic historical love story Sit Ramam making the waves everywhere.
The pan-Indian film industry has not surprisingly had the effect of raising international awareness about Indian culture and traditions in ways that no government tourism program has ever done. These have led to interesting, if intriguing, exchanges between the Indian and the wider South Asian cinemas. A notable example of such collaborations is Ponniyin Selvan, a historical action film produced by British-Sri Lankan entrepreneur Allirajah Subaskaran and directed by the iconic Mani Ratnam.
Known for his bold storytelling, extravagant sets, and spectacular visuals, Mani has described Ponniyin Selvan as his “dream project.” This movie featured a star-studded ensemble cast, including Vikram, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Jayam Ravi, Karthi, Prabhu, R. Sarathkumar, and Sri Lanka’s very own Shyam Fernando. On September 30, 2022, the film had its international premiere in Tamil, along with dubbed versions in Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, and Malayalam.
On a more local level, Sri Lanka’s first 3D animation film using motion capture technology was released on January 20, providing Sri Lankans with a novel cinematic experience.
Gajaman, directed by Chanaka Perera and produced by John Fonseka and Chamika Jinadasa for Studio 101, is a breakthrough for Sri Lankan cinema. The film is based on a newspaper cartoon series by veteran Sri Lankan cartoonist Camillus Perera’s. Suneth Chithrananda and Gaminda Priyaviraj, who rose to prominence as “Chooti Malli” and “Podi Malli” in a popular Sri Lankan TV comedy sketch, provided their voices for the two protagonists, while Anushka Udana of Wasthi Productions composed the music. The film set a new record, reportedly earning LKR 150 million in just two weeks.
Even though South Asian film industries are hard to pin down, given the immense cultural, religious, and social diversity of South Asia, every regional cinema has the potential to draw audiences in. For one thing, global audiences identify easily with certain emotions, characters, and genres, from daunting love stories to gut-wrenching gore to historical films set in exotic landscapes.
Moreover, regardless of security issues and tensions, the Asian region as a whole has made its culture one of its main exports. A good example of this is K-pop. K-pop boy and girl pop bands have achieved enormous success abroad because of their catchy rhythms and dance moves. With so much talent coming out of South Asia in terms of acting, directing, scriptwriting, production, and so on, therefore, it is clear that South Asian cinema is here to stay and it will gain popularity and acclaim.
The question which remains, though, is to what extent will the localization of South Asian films take place through subtitles and dubbing, as these small but highly significant industries need an outlet and their cultural nuances will not always be captured via translation. It is on that basis that one can have any hope for the growth of South Asian cinema, as a regional and a global industry.
Deshani Dewmini Samaragunarathna is a final year undergraduate at the Faculty of Defense and Strategic Studies of the General Sir John Kotelawala Defense University. She represented Sri Lanka at the Global UGRAD program and completed a semester at the University of Alabama in the US. Geopolitics, Sri Lankan history, and soft power diplomacy are among her research interests.
Factum is an Asia-Pacific focused think tank on International Relations, Tech Cooperation and Strategic Communications accessible via www.factum.lk.
The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the organization’s.
