Actor Naseeruddin Shah shared his opinion on why films from the South were doing better than Hindi cinema. He stated that while the films may be crass in their taste, their execution was always flawless.
Naseeruddin Shah believes the films coming out from the Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu industries are more imaginative and original than the ones being produced from the Hindi film industry. The veteran actor shared that even though South films ‘may be crass in their taste’, their execution was ‘always flawless’.
In recent years, films like KGF, Pushpa: The Rise, Kantara and RRR have gone to surpass Hindi films at the domestic box office. Many Hindi films featuring A-list stars like Akshay Kumar and Aamir Khan have not been received well at the box office in the last year. Akshay’s latest release, Selfiee, opened to lower than expected numbers on Friday.
Speaking to Indian Express for an interview, the veteran actor explained why he felt films from the South were performing better than the Hindi film industry and therefore had a larger appeal to the audience. He stated, “Even the commercial movies made in Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu are imaginative. They are original. They may be crass in their taste, but the execution is always flawless. I have found this for a very long time. Even their song picturisation, even in those corny films of Jeetendra and Sridevi, insane as it may be with hundreds of matkas (clay pots) in a line, but at least it was an original idea.”
Naseeruddin added, “It wasn’t just a line of girls dancing not quite together and one central dancer. So, I really think South Indian films work harder and it is no mystery why their films are doing better than most of the Hindi cinema.”
The actor will next be seen as Emperor Akbar in the Zee5 series Taj-Divided By Blood. The historical drama, which is a new retelling of the Mughals, will be released on March 3. The series also features Aditi Rao Hydari as Anarkali, Sandhya Mridul as Queen Jodha Bai, Zarina Wahab as Queen Salima, Aashim Gulati as Prince Salim, Taha Shah as Prince Murad, Shubham Kumar Mehra as Prince Daniyal, Rahul Bose as Mirza Hakim and Dharmendra as Sheikh Salim Christi.
His last film role was with Kuttey which also starred Tabu, Arjun Kapoor, Radhika Madan, Konkona Sensharma, Kumud Mishra and Shardul Bhardwaj. The directorial debut of Aasmaan Bhardwaj did not perform well at the box office.