There's no denying that Prabhas's Baahubali, directed by SS Rajamouli, paved the path for pan-India films. With the Baahubali franchise, Prabhas emerged as a pan-India star and it undeniably gave his career a boost that the actor has repeatedly said he's grateful for.
What Baahubali's success also did was encourage other directors and producers to think big, to think pan-India. Consequently, we got pan-India blockbuster hits like Allu Arjun starrer Pushpa, Ram Charan and Jr NTR's RRR and now the monstrous KGF Chapter 2 starring Yash, which has been smashing box office records even before it hit theatres on April 14.
Recently, during an exclusive telephonic conversation with Prabhas for the worldwide premiere of his last outing Radhe Shyam (Hindi) which will be telecasted directly after its theatrical release on Zee Cinema on April 24 at 12 noon, we spoke to the Baahubali fame actor about a pan-India rivalry with the stars who've recently tasted massive success and popularity across the nation and even worldwide.
While speaking about the success of RRR and the film becoming the third highest-grossing Indian film after Dangala and Baahubali 2, when asked if now with the emergence of new pan-India stars like Ram Charan, Jr NTR and Yash, would there be rivalry among the actors, Prabhas said, "Every business has competition but another part if you take...as I've said, now you will see a lot of Indian films, it was always there...Maine Pyaar Kiya my grandfather saw and he loved Salman Khan...so, it was always there. Now, the exposure is more."
He added, "Eventually, we are going to make a lot of Indian films. In fact, we are going to cross Indian cinema also I feel. So, more than rivalry, I feel we are already late to make Indian films and now we've started and it's going good and we're going to make lots of Indian films together from the North and South."
Ask him if he saw RRR, Prabhas said, "Yes, I did and I loved it. It's the third highest-grossing Indian film!" "It's Rajamouli sir...so it should do well and it's a pan-India film. Rajamouli sir is not a South director, he is an Indian director now. It's already 1100-12000 crore, so, it's an extraordinary hit," he concluded.