Jr NTR, Prabhas' new films capitalise on past hits to dominate Hindi box office
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Southern film heroes Prabhas and Jr NTR are reaping the benefits of their movies such as Baahubali and RRR, which turned out to be massive hits in the Hindi-speaking northern belt. Their new releases such as Salaar and Devara, dubbed in Hindi, are generating box-office success even though they are unrelated to their earlier hits, trade experts said.
In September, the Hindi-dubbed version of Devara: Part 1, starring Jr NTR, made ₹7.95 crore on its opening day and managed collections of ₹67.24 crore so far. This exceeded the earnings of recently released Hindi films such as Jigra, Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video, Vedaa, and Khel Khel Mein. Earlier, the Hindi version of Prabhas' Salaar earned ₹18 crore on day one and ₹153.84 crore so far.
“Without question, these stars have turned into household names and there is great recognition for them and their previous films among Hindi-speaking audiences," said Rahul Puri, managing director of Mukta Arts and Mukta A2 Cinemas. “There is also a realisation that their films come guaranteed with certain elements such as drama and action that viewers want." In the case of Devara, Jr NTR is known to audiences in the north as ‘the RRR guy’ and the film delivered on all the elements that mass-market viewers looked for, Puri said. While southern language movies featuring stars popular among north Indian audiences come with the advantage of some brand recognition, the need to market them is less than for a title featuring an actor yet to make inroads in Hindi films.
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