South Cinema Rejuvenated Bollywood, Says Naga Vamsi; Boney Kapoor Disagrees

Mumbai: At the recent producers’ roundtable by Galatta Plus, filmmakers Boney Kapoor and Naga Vamsi entered into a heated debate over the impact and success of Bollywood and Tollywood movies.

While Boney Kapoor spoke about the demand and influence of Indian cinema around the globe, Naga Vamsi stressed that South Indian films have changed the way people look at Indian cinema.

Boney shared, “Telugu films have a unique market in the US, Tamil films have a unique market in Singapore and Malaysia”, adding that, “Gulf, of course, is a Cosmopolitan area.” To this, Naga Vamsi quipped, “Gulf has a huge market for Malayalam films.”

Naga continued, “One thing, sir, you have to accept this. It might sound really harsh. We, South Indians, have changed the way you [Bollywood] look at cinema. Because, you guys [Bollywood], were stuck in making films for Bandra and Juhu. You witnessed a change with Baahubali, RRR, Animal and Jawan.”

Boney disagreed with Naga and said that he was ‘wrong.’ Naga pointed out that Boney named Baahubali and RRR (Telugu films) after “historical” Mughal-E-Azam, but “never mentioned a Hindi film” while talking about successful movies.

Boney explained, “In this forum, we can’t be talking about every bit of knowledge we know. We need to talk in broader terms. When I say Mughal-E-Azam, Baahubali and all that, it’s not that I’ve missed out on other films. I know those films. At the tip of my fingers, I can rattle out those names. But, it’s nothing like Telugu cinema has taught Indians. I don’t believe that. It was always there. Even the hero (Allu Arjun) of Pushpa 2 said that he is a big fan of Amitabh Bachchan. He could have said that he was a big fan of NT Rama Rao.”

Naga Vamsi further stated that the films which have done “huge business in Hindi” include Baahubali, RRR, KGF 2, Kalki 2898 AD, and Pushpa 2: The Rule and these movies have been made by Telugu directors.

To this, Boney stated that Naga Vamsi was “forgetting” about Hum Aapke Hain Koun, Gadar and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge made by Hindi filmmakers.

South filmmaker Naga Vamsi produced films such as Bheemla Nayak and Rang De (2022). He also co-produced Jersey (2022) and Tillu Square, Lucky Baskhar and Gangs of Godavari this year.

Meanwhile, Bollywood filmmaker Boney Kapoor has produced movies namely Woh Saat Din (1983), Mr India (1987), Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja (1993), Judaai (1997), Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai (2000), No Entry (2005), Mom (2017), and Maidaan (2024).

Watch the discussion here: