South cinema has started to rule the roost in India cinema as two of the highest grossers of 2024 are from South, more relevantly, Tollywood as Pushpa 2 and Kalki have topped the list.
Coming to the topic now, it could perhaps be argued that Sukumar has not gained as much prominence as he should have with Pushpa 2, while the opposite happened with Prashanth Neel.
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Going into the story, every other director not named Rajamouli is basing their markets on the it products. Rajamouli is the only director who is able to sell tickets across India solely on his name.
Meanwhile, Sukumar and Neel could be considered next on the list, thanks to RRR and KGF 2.
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However, in the case of Neel, he could successfully carve a name for himself with KGF. The branding of KGF director worked reasonably well for Salaar in Hindi.
Adding to that, Salaar had certain degree of storytelling that attained fame for Neel.
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But in the case of Pushpa 2, Allu Arjun walked away with the credit almost entirely. Be it from North to South, every market is resonating with Allu Arjun but sadly not with Sukumar.
There are certain moments of brilliance from Sukumar that stand out in Pushpa 2 but they’re largely overpowered by Allu Arjun’s brilliant act.
Everyone is talking about Bunny shouldering the complex scenes including the Jathara episode while not much credit is going to Sukumar.
The Pushpa world is entirely running on Allu Arjun and his astounding act, and the perception is also on the same lines, while Sukumar is getting confined exposure.
Neel could have a successful follow up film in the form of Salaar after KGF 2 which helped his cause and Sukumar will now have to something of this sort with his next with Ram Charan to turn the tide in his favor.
