Yash says people in the north would make fun of South cinema earlier: They were like 'yeh kya action hai, udd raha hai'

KGF star Yash has said that even as films from South are being celebrated now, they were once made fun of in the north and presented to the audience in a bad way.

South films are ruling the roost at the box office currently but it wasn’t always the case. For years, Bollywood was considered the dominant film industry in India and films from the four industries in the south found it tough to compete with Hindi films. KGF star Yash said in a recent interview that for years, films from down south were presented badly in the north, almost like a joke, something that changed after Baahubali.

Yash in a still from KGF Chapter 2.

Films from Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada industries began airing on TV channels in the north with Hindi dubbing some two decades ago. Over time, these films developed a cult following and led to the viewers generating interest in the industries in general. But initially, the way these films were packaged and presented on TV was almost comical.

Speaking at the India Today Conclave, Yash said, “10 years ago, dubbed films became very popular here (North India). But, initially they all started watching with different opinions. People used to make fun of South films. They were like 'yeh kya action hai, udd raha hai sab' (what is this action, everything is flying). That's how it started and eventually they got hooked on to that and they started understanding that art form. The problem with that was our films were sold for a bare minimum price, people used to do bad quality dubbing and it used to be presented in a bad way with funny names.”

But the actor said that over the years, familiarity with this genre of cinema warmed viewers to films from the south. Giving credit to SS Rajamouli for bringing about that change, he added, “People started becoming familiar with our dubbed films. It was long pending. Credit goes to SS Rajamouli sir. If you have to break a rock, continuous effort is needed. Baahubali gave that push. KGF was done with a different intention. What KGF was that it was not done to intimidate, but to inspire. People have now started noticing South films.”

Yash’s KGF Chapter 2 is the highest-grossing Indian film of 2022 so far, with a global gross of ₹1207 crore. The next in the list is SS Rajamouli’s RR. In fact, the top 10 highest-grossing Indian films of 2022 contain only four from Bollywood, the lowest number ever for a calendar year.