Can Telugu Stars Crack Tamil Market?

Contrary to Tamil stars who made deep inroads into the Telugu market and several other Tamil stars are joining the bandwagon, it raises pertinent question that whether Telugu stars could do the same in Tamil markets.

Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Vikram, Suriya, Karthi, Vishal have already carved out a niche for themselves in Telugu market. Now that the likes of Dhanush and Vijay are eyeing to expand their base in Telugu states, what about our Telugu stars?

Mahesh Babu has attempted with Spyder but he has failed miserably with his maiden attempt. Even the dubbed version of Brahmotsavam has failed. Telugu star heroes Chiranjeevi, Balakrishna, Nagarjuna, Venkatesh, Pawan Kalyan, Allu Arjun, Jr NTR, Ram Charan and et al could not crack Tamil market when compared to the Tamil stars who managed to do it in Telugu.

However, Prabhas is a slight exception as he managed to do it in Tamil with Baahubali. But, even he couldn’t repeat the feat with Saaho. Yet Prabhas is in a bit better position in terms of his peers. He cemented his position in the North to an extent. Even in states like Bihar, Prabhas has got a good fan base which is quite impressive.

On the other hand, Allu Arjun is also in a comfortable position in terms of expanding the base. Bunny did phenomenally well in the Malayalam market and managed to get the sobriquet of ‘Mallu Arjun’. He also has a good market in Bangalore where many other Telugu heroes have. Now, Allu Arjun is attempting a PAN India image with Pushpa which will be released simultaneously in 5 languages including Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam.

Chiranjeevi’s Acharya is going to have a wide release in multiple languages. Even Chiru has a great appeal in Hindi. But Chiru is occupied with more South. He is teaming up with Tamil filmmaker Mohan Raja for Lucifer remake and probably, it indicates that Chiru is also planning to breach the Tamil market. Nagarjuna has done Oopiri which did well in Telugu whereas it couldn’t do as expected in Tamil. However, Nag has his own charm. Even in Hindi, he has a considerable base and he will be seen in Brahmastra alongside Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Amitabh Bachchan.

Venkatesh has mostly confined himself to Telugu and he often relies on the remakes of other language films. He is currently doing Narappa, the Telugu remake of Asuran. He will be doing Drushyam 2, sequel to Drishyam 2 in Malayalam. Balakrishna has strictly restricted himself to Telugu audiences. He is choosing more masala and commercial potboilers.

Mahesh Babu, who has national recognition for his handsome looks, has a great chance. He may attempt the PAN India film with the collaboration of SS Rajamouli. Mahesh had done several experiments in his career in the past. But he has become very choosy and conscious given that high budgets are involved. If he does crack other markets, there is no stopping for him.

Pawan Kalyan had planned to conquer other markets much before. He tried his hand at Hindi and other markets with Sardaar Gabbar Singh. But it has failed miserably. Now that Pawan is back to films after his political stint, he is expected to once again attempt to expand his base. His collaboration with Krish for Hari Hara Veera Mallu is also expected to have a multilingual release.

Jr NTR and Ram Charan are keeping their fingers crossed. They are hoping that magnum opus RRR under SS Rajamouli’s direction would make them dearer to Tamil audiences. NTR has already made up his plans for Tamil market post RRR.

As more Tamil stars are eyeing Telugu market, it is high time Telugu stars also once again eye the Tamil market besides other markets. Young actors like Ram Pothineni, Nithiin are taking baby steps to expand their base in Tamil. Ram has collaborated with Lingusamy and is going to collaborate with AR Murugadoss. Several other heroes are slowly taking challenging steps to make inroads into Tamil. But Tamil audiences seem to be pretty hard to crack for Telugu stars. Let’s hope this will be changed soon.