Silly Statement on South Audience!

Actor Shahid Kapoor will be seen next in Ali Abbas Zafar’s Bloody Daddy, which started streaming today on Jio Cinema. Recently he appealed to the South Indian audience to accept Bollywood movies with open hearts, just as the Hindi-speaking audience has ‘wholeheartedly’ accepted Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, and Malayalam films.

He said, “The Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam audience should also watch Hindi films just like the way the Hindi audience has accepted your films with an open heart. Only then Indian cinema will grow. The audience should be open, and there should be acceptance for language films from every quarters.”

Shahid is the first Bollywood actor to mention, even though indirectly, that the South audience isn’t receptive to Bollywood films. Shahid looks to be living in some delusion that the South audience doesn’t accept Hindi films.

If the South audience was not supportive of Bollywood films, blockbusters like Sholay, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, and 3 Idiots would not have been possible. The recent blockbuster, Pathaan, also could gross 1000 crores because the South audience, including the Telugu states, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala, supported it in a big way. Shahid Kapoor’s own film, Kabir Singh, became a big hit in southern states, despite being the remake of a Telugu film.

Shahid Kapoor must realize that the audience has become more shrewd and demanding post-Covid and is not in the mood to watch the usual movies that used to get accepted before. Only films that have tremendous theater value will be patronized by the audience, be it North or South. Make exciting and entertaining films, and the audience will come in hordes to watch them.