Pan India craze giving pain to Tollywood

Pan India craze giving pain to Tollywood. Telugu filmmakers and stars have been under the obsession of Pan India craze and many feel that is now giving pain to all the stakeholders.

Following the Pan India craze, Tollywood makers are neglecting the Telugu actors to include actors from Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, and Malayalam industries.

Director Teja says “Pan-India is turning out to be pain-India, as hundreds of Telugu artists have been deprived of work and livelihood over the last few years,”

He is currently doing a Pan India project with newcomer Amitov in the lead and casting all Telugu actors. He says “I want to break the myth that casting actors from multiple languages is essential for success. My film will prove that Telugu talent alone is more than capable,”

He adds “Today, even comedians, character artists, and friendly roles are being filled by actors from other languages,” He shares “We have over 1,000 registered actors—both men and women—in the Movie Artistes Association. Many of them are talented and proven performers. If this obsession with an unproven pan-India idea continues, where will these artists find work?”

He rues “I don’t want to take names, but only a handful of films truly connected with non-Telugu audiences across India. Still, the obsession hasn’t subsided. Filmmakers are blindly inflating budgets, losing money, and in the process, killing Telugu talent,”

He points "Actually, the pan-India wave gained momentum after the massive success of Baahubali 2, RRR, Pushpa: The Rise, Kalki 2898 AD, and HanuMan. However, he notes that several other films—such as Thandel, HIT 3, Lucky Bhaskar, Mirai, They Call Him OG, Hari Hara Veera Mallu, Andhra King Taluka, and Akhanda 2—were heavily promoted in Hindi but failed to make a meaningful impact beyond the Telugu states"

Pointing to Kantara, he says “Malayalam cinema too has been earning global acclaim by trusting its own talent,"

However, Abhishek Agarwal says “We had Anupam Kher play a blind professor in Karthikeya 2. His role, explaining the glory of Lord Krishna, elevated the story,” he says. “We have again roped him in for our upcoming film, India House, where he plays freedom fighter Shyamji Krishna Varma.”

He adds “Telugu films have broken regional and language barriers. To attract Hindi distributors and OTT platforms, casting actors from different industries becomes important. Barring a few misses, Telugu cinema is being discussed worldwide—we should be proud of that. We are racing ahead.”