WAVES summit 2025: Nagarjuna reflects on the success films like ‘Pushpa’, ‘KGF’ in Hindi

Addressing the WAVES summit 2025, Nagarjuna stated there is a reason why Allu Arjun's "Pushpa" franchise earned more in Hindi than Telugu, as the audience in the North was craving to see stars in a tentpole movie set-up, like the Sukumar directorial or Yash's blockbuster "KGF" series.

Mumbai: Tollywood heartthrob Nagarjuna feels there is only one ingredient of the success of a film: Stay rooted to your native language.

Addressing the WAVES summit 2025, Nagarjuna stated there is a reason why Allu Arjun’s “Pushpa” franchise earned more in Hindi than Telugu, as the audience in the North was craving to see stars in a tentpole movie set-up, like the Sukumar directorial or Yash’s blockbuster “KGF” series.

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“Both the ‘Pushpa’ films made more money in the North than in Telugu. We have seen similar stories in Telugu before, like ‘Pushpa’, which has larger-than-life heroes. Whereas in the North-in Bihar, UP, and Punjab- they wanted to see their heroes like Pushpa Raj, Yash in ‘KGF’ or ‘Baahubali’. They wanted to see larger-than-life heroes. For Indian people and culture, just living day to day is difficult, and when they want to overcome the stress by watching films, they want to see magic on screen,” he said.

The ‘Bangarraju’ actress added, “That’s what the larger-than-life stories are doing, without losing the fundamentals of Indian storytelling. They are not going away from that, which is why they have been successful. Rajamouli shot Baahubali frame to frame, thinking it is a Telugu film. He was very proud of his roots and language, and he shot it like a Telugu film, and people loved it across the world! If you are rooted to your storytelling, it will resonate.”

Nagarjuna said that Indian films have their own, unique storytelling DNA, which one must be proud of. “You might say, ‘A guy raises his fist and 20 people fall, it looks abnormal!’ But if you like Marvel or DC films, Superman does the same thing, but they give the logic of them having ‘super powers’.

But we don’t need those special powers! The common man, the ticket-paying audience, including me, wants to watch my heroes larger than life. When I see Prabhas, Allu Arjun, and others going on screen and doing what they do, I clap and whistle”, the ‘Brahmastra’ actor concluded.

Nagarjuna was speaking on the panel discussion ‘Pan-Indian cinema; myth or momentum?,’ where he was joined by actors Anupam Kher, Khusbhu, and Karthi.