The blockbuster movie RRR, in its Hindi version, was announced by Netflix as 'the most popular film from India' on the platform.
The film, which is original to Telugu, started streaming in major Indian languages other Hindi on the Zee5 platform. Its Hindi version, which began streaming on Netflix from May 20, is now crowned the most popular ever.
According to Netflix, RRR (Hindi) film, which has a runtime of 3 hours 2 minutes, has been viewed for "over 45 million hours" across the world.
RRR, which released in theatres on March 25 this year, was always destined for greatness. Directed by India's most hotshot director now S S Rajamouli, the man behind such extravagant hits like Eega and the two-part Baahubali series, RRR is a historical epic, as it were, with spectacular action set pieces and rambunctious and adrenaline-pumping dances and songs.
Featuring the energetic stars Jr NTR and Ram Charan in the leads, the film also has Bollywood biggies like Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn playing second fiddle to the Telugu stars' larger than life characterisation.
What Bollywood should do?
Jr NTR plays Bheem, protector of a tribe that lives near the Adilabad Forest. His mission in the film is to find a girl who is kidnapped by the British. Ram Charan is Rama Raju, an Indian cop who works for the British Army and has his own motivations that lead him to undertake a secret mission. The two heroes join forces without knowing the other’s true identity.
Both the characters are loosely based on real-life freedom fighters from Andhra. Though the two were not connected in real-life, the director has come up with a make-belief story that take acceptable cinematic liberty with actual events.
The Western media (the US, to be specific) has been thrilled to bits with RRR and many of the reviews have been over-the-top in its praise and adulation. In India, the success of RRR has been, rightly, seen as the continuing rise and dominance of films from South India over the Bollywood offerings (Hindi).
But the fact the RRR in its Hindi version is the most popular globally, strangely (and ironically), underscores the importance of Bollywood. After all, the sheer numbers of Hindi-speaking people, both in India and among the diasporic community across the globe, would always make Hindi offerings more popular. It is a numerical reality, nothing more.
The concept of pan-Indian movies has come to stay mainly because South Indian movies now can be made available in Hindi --- either through dubbing or with subtitles.
And smart directors from South India are tapping into the trend by making movies that are high on visual spectacle and astounding images. The national success of visually impressive Tamil web series Suzhal - The Vortex also underscores this point. The series, not surprisingly, was made available in record 30 languages.
South Indian filmmakers seem to understand the current day audiences better. They have come to realise that public continue to like the stories to be emotional, but need them to be a told in bigger and better way.
It is a lesson that Bollywood directors would do well to emulate.
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