Ravi Rai: Allu Arjun became a phenomenal star beyond South because of the Hindi dubbed version of 'Pushpa' - Exclusive

Director Ravi Rai, elder brother of 'Raksha Bandhan' director Aanand L Rai, is known for revolutionising Indian television with shows like 'Sailaab', 'Thoda Hai Thode Ki Zaroorat Hai', 'Sparsh' and more. He has also donned the director's hat for films like 'Do Pal', 'Anjaane' among others. ETimes sat down for an exclusive chat with the reclusive filmmaker where he shared his unfiltered opinion about the lull phase in the Hindi film industry, whether Bollywood needs a correction, the North vs South language debate, amalgamation of regional and Hindi cinema and more...
The South film industry is preparing for a correction. Is something similar needed in the Hindi film industry too?
I really don’t know whether South has already gone into a correction mode or it should. It’s entirely their call. But looking down upon Bollywood and mocking it with just 3-4 good darts in their quiver doesn’t stature them into a Gladiator. And suddenly breaking into an amateur war of ‘we’ versus ‘they’ by few actors puts them into a sloppy and a shoddy space which is not the requirement of the day. Why would they target Bollywood? And why is the media only reminding those 3-4 films to Bollywood which has had a glorious, historical and a triumphant past since last so many decades? Perhaps the media is not aware of the junk in their backyards too which is open for all to see. Nobody is a Gulliver, and none is a Lilliputian. But mocking hurts.
Sure, the Hindi film industry is going through bad waters post the pandemic. There’s no denial to it. But that certainly cannot arouse statements like ‘Bollywood cannot afford me’ from the ‘Brahmotsava’ star Mahesh Babu. Though later it was said the statement was either regretted or the statement was misquoted.
My humble request to the ‘Spyder’ actor would be to please come and grace Bollywood a chance to work with him. Why couldn’t Bollywood be able to afford him? The ‘Aagadu’ artiste should revisit the history and find out that Bollywood has always been a warm and a lovable host to Gemini Ganesan and Shivaji Ganesan too. I don’t think it would fall under the category of affordability or non-affordability.

What do you have to say about the performances of actors from the South at the Hindi box office?
In the past, Bollywood has happily made films with superstars like Suriya, Venkatesh, Ram Charan, NTR Junior, Chiranjeevi, Shriya Saran, Rana Daggubati, Shruti Hassan, Kamal Hassan, Asin, Siddharth, Nagarjuna, Naga Chaitanya, Prabhas, Vijay Deverakonda, Kiccha Sudeep. Do you think working with these mega stars was a healthy collaboration or it had factors of being affordable or non-affordable?
But Bollywood never ever raised a doubt or created an issue on their performance regarding the box office return of revenues, least mocking them up. Bollywood is still looking forward to team up with them. Isn’t ‘Liger’ a testimony to it?
And then what kind of clumsy statement is ‘We make pan-India films, Bollywood doesn’t’? This feeling of ‘I am a Complan Boy. Main tumse bada’ can be a healthy one liner to sell an energy booster, but quite a detrimental and weak one to get into the battles of meaningless egos. Bollywood, which is already fighting the troubled waters cannot be treated as pariahs just because of 3-4 films hitting the bull’s eye.
Your take on the debate over Hindi as a national language...
This is another abruptly fabricated disagreement tossed and hurled at you that ‘Hindi is not a national language’. Now how did this statement take birth? Who manufactured it? Who said it is a national language? And this never was an issue in the last 100 years of cinema. Even the pioneers and the stalwarts never thought of this line, then where did this statement get constructed?
The nation beyond the territories of South did not know of Allu Arjun. But the Hindi dub of ‘Pushpa’ made him a phenomenal star further than his home provinces and away from the regions of South.
‘Pushpa, naam sunn ke flower samjhe kya? Fire hai main’ or ‘Jhukega nahin saala.’ Do these lines bring in the face of Allu Arjun in front of us? Without these two ‘Hindi’ lines, 'Pushpa' wouldn’t have become such a pan-India success what the few are talking about. How many of us, beyond the territories of South have really heard the original Telugu dialogues? Just two Hindi lines have the ability to generate a film into a pan-India. Everyone from international cricketers like David Warner, to actors, to politicians, criminals were applying, utilising and making reels on ‘Jhukega nahin saala’, but in Hindi language, not the original Telugu dialogues. That’s a ‘Ripley’s Believe it or not’.

What do you have to say about the Hindi and regional cinema coming together?
In the recent times, one has seen such a welcoming change. It is such a rich amalgamation of creativity happening between all the regional and Hindi cinema coming together. These are such beautiful times when Ram Charan and NTR Junior say on Kail Sharma's show that they would learn the Hindi language to join forces together and work in Bollywood. These are such wonderful times when Bollywood megastars Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn learn the respective language and work in a Telugu film. We should be happy that today Indian cinema in all languages is contributing to the beautiful and rich diversity of our nation. Whether it’s a Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Bangla, Oriya, Gujarati or a Bhojpuri film getting dubbed in Hindi or vice versa. Let’s look at it positively rather than ‘you’ versus ‘me’ or who makes ‘pan-India film’. Let us refrain from being ‘Main tumse bada’. Let’s not be eager to write premature obituaries of each other.
Things like these should not happen. One, they hurt each other and two, things like these stop us from collaborating and teaming up together for future.