Vijay Deverakonda Opens Up On The Success Of Allu Arjun's Pushpa & Ram Charan-Jr NTR's RRR

Maverick filmmaker SS Rajamouli with his Baahubali franchise brought back the trend of pan India movies, following which Kannada star Yash's KGF: Chapter 1 also tasted massive success across the country.

Allu Arjun's Pushpa which released earlier this year and Rajamouli's latest release RRR starring Ram Charan and Jr NTR, minted big numbers in their Hindi dubbed versions as well, proving that the lines between north and south cinema has started blurring.

Today, Arjun Reddy star Vijay Deverakonda at the announcement event for his new film JGM (Jana Gana Mana) with Puri Jagannadh, opened up on the success of Allu Arjun's Pushpa and SS Rajamouli's RRR. He said that pan India films will be soon called as Indian films.

When asked whether the success of these two films will encourage more filmmakers to go the pan India way, Vijay explained, "We have a huge population. It's a con in some ways, but it's actually one of India's biggest advantage. I always wondered why Hollywood films are made at such a big budget or why are their stars bigger stars? Why are their movies made on bigger budget and why they are making more money? It's only because more people speak English and watch English films."

He continued, "I don't believe that they are more talented than us. I believe our stars are equally or more talented than them. They are just bigger stars because more people watch their films and more people know their language. So, for the Indian film industry to grow, for our budgets to become bigger, for us to make great cinema, and, to stay relevant and powerful, we have to unite the country through cinema."

"We need to be able to make cinema for the entire country and that's what Baahubali did. It just opened the doors. I am very grateful to what Rajamouli Sir and the entire team of Baahubali did because they showed us that it's possible. Pan India films have beenmade before, but in my generation, it was Baahubali which showed us what's possible," Deverakonda said at the event.

He continued, "In some way, I feel what Rajamouli Garu, Prabhas and Arka Media, Karan Johar and the Indian audience gave us belief that we can do this and I feel in some way, they have made it possible for me to sit here today and make cinema for the country. They have shown that it's possiible.

The Dear Comrade actor said that for India to be a powerhouse, Indian cinema is the way and added, "Regional cinema is beautiful and it will always play its role. But the directors, producers and actors who can shoulder national cinema and pull it off, they should do it."

Citing example of China, Vijay said that Hollywood is collaborating with them because they have a huge population watching cinema.

"In two years, if films consistently perform like Baahubali, RRR or Pushpa, Hollywood will be knocking on our doors for us to collaborate with them because they will want to enter our market. So, national cinema is the way forward and it's going to make us a very powerful country. It's going to make our industry very powerful," the actor shared his opinion on the trend of pan India films.

Vijay Deverakonda is currently awaiting the release of Liger which is his first pan India release. The film marks Ananya Panday's debut in Telugu cinema.