Why Bollywood's big guns are a damp squib in south

livemint.com:

Jawan released last year, no Hindi movie has managed to draw big numbers in Tamil Nadu Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, once lucrative markets for commercial films featuring top stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan. With mainstream commercial elements missing from most Bollywood films, southern movies continue to dominate their native states.

Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan that earned over ₹512 crore in domestic box office collections fetched less than ₹18 crore from Tamil Nadu and Kerala put together, and another ₹38 crore from the Telugu-speaking states. Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Animal clocked over ₹462 crore across India, but only ₹6.81 crore from Tamil Nadu and Kerala and about ₹40.22 crore from the Telugu states.

“The market for Hindi films in the south is getting smaller and smaller because the southern states are so strong with content in their own languages, and there are so many films getting made there that it’s difficult for Hindi movies to even manage too many screens at the time of release," Rahul Puri, managing director, Mukta Arts and Mukta A2 Cinemas said. While Jawan was an exception with nearly ₹20 crore from Tamil Nadu and Kerala together, Puri said hits like Pathaan are more indicative of how Hindi films are doing in the south.

Moreover, Hindi films are targeting different audience segments with their experimental storylines and up-market treatment, versus the mass-market viewers who pay relatively lower ticket rates and flock to single-screen cinemas in the south. “Unlike southern filmmakers who are roping in Bollywood stars to feature in their projects, Hindi films aren’t really getting southern stars to appear in their films yet," Puri pointed out.