Dubbed films elbow out Hindi releases

There has been a huge wave of uncertainty prevailing in the film fraternity. What exactly is happening? There has been an apprehension that the South is taking over and filling in for the Hindi films. Is it?
So far, filmmakers were depending on films in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam for subjects. As of today, close to 25 South films are being remade in Hindi. These include the recently released, ‘BachchanPaandey’, and soon-to-be-released ‘Jersey’.There is nothing original about it.
While our filmmakers have yet to take a professional approach, the rest of the entertainment industry has become businesslike. For instance, the exhibition trade, which has changed almost entirely from single screens to multiplexes. With single screens, the business was one-to-one and the cinemas were classified. A film needed to have a ‘main’ cinema in all cities and, then, there were the ‘side’ cinemas.
The concept has changed totally. There is no such thing as a main cinema where a film was left to enjoy its run till it fed itself. Now, all cinemas are main cinemas. A cinema is not chosen area-wise to cater to the local populace. Now, a film can have as many as five screens at a single cinema property and as many as 25 screens playing the same film on a single stretch of road!
The aim is quick recovery and looking for new business thereafter. The multiplex managements have no emotions for films, it is just business, whatever the film, as long as it draws the audience. It need not be a Hindi film. Hindi-belt cinemas for Hindi films first is no longer the norm. And, something unimaginable before, a never-before-kind-of case has happened. The dubbed versions of two South films, which released this past Friday, ‘Beast’ and ‘KGF: Chapter 2’ (in Tamil and Kannada languages, respectively), hit multiple screens in the Hindi belt, just like a big-banner Hindi film. Also, if a dubbed version manages to do good business in the Hindi heartland, why even think of a bilingual!
South films dubbed in Hindi releasing on a huge scale is not surprising anymore. That these dubbed films have been doing good business is a fact. That these films are posing a competition for Hindi films is something that is bothering the Hindi film stars.
More so, because Hindi stars have never been able to gain popularity in the South, save for in some areas such as the Nizam Circuit, which consists of the twin cities of Hyderabad-Secunderabad and Marathwada in Maharashtra (Hindi-speaking regions), besides cities like Bengaluru and Chennai. If a rare film worked, it was the film, and not because of the star it featured. IANS