Big stars are misfiring in Hindi while modest regional films and streaming deals quietly outperform the pan-India machine built by Baahubali and Pushpa.
The pan-India model that Baahubali 2 kicked off and Pushpa, RRR, KGF Chapter 2 and Kantara turned into habit has stalled for its biggest names, with Ram Charan, Jr NTR and Yash all misfiring in Hindi over the last couple of years (1, 2). At the same time, smaller films without a pan-India tag, such as the Kannada hit Premada Oorali, and dubbed versions of modestly budgeted films like Nani's The Paradise, are finding audiences the big-ticket launches are struggling to reach (20, 26). So the honest answer from CutMirchi's coverage is not yes or no, it is that the label still moves products and promotion, but the box office results attached to it are uneven and increasingly star-dependent.
The numbers behind the slump are real, and recent
According to Koimoi, the run that built the pan-India habit produced striking numbers: Pushpa did 106 crore net in Hindi in 2021 despite Covid restrictions, RRR pulled 277 crore net the following year, KGF Chapter 2 did 434.62 crore net, and Kantara, on a much smaller budget, still found 81.1 crore net (1). Every star associated with that wave has since struggled. Ram Charan's big deal and Peddi both flopped, and Jr NTR was squeezed out by Devara and War 2 landing wrong, according to the same report (1). South cinema is now pinning its reset on three unreleased films, Allu Arjun's Raaka, Prabhas' Spirit and Mahesh Babu's Varanasi, none of which have opened yet (1). That is itself a sign of how thin the current pipeline of proven pan-India hits has become.
Yash's Toxic shows how badly a pan-India English push can fail
The English-language cut of Yash's Toxic, positioned as part of its pan-India actioner push, barely registered at the box office. Bollywood Hungama reported it opened to Rs 1.38 lakh from just 11 shows across four cities on day one, slid to Rs 78,774 on Saturday and Rs 70,460 on Sunday, then collapsed to Rs 3,125 on the worst weekday, before being pulled from Indian screens after a total of roughly Rs 3.16 lakh across the week (2). That a Yash film, one of the stars named among the pan-India misfires, could not sustain even a token English print suggests the audience appetite for multi-version rollouts has limits, at least for this format.
Smaller or regional releases are outperforming without the pan-India machinery
Premada Oorali, a Kannada film budgeted at 2.5 crore and released without fanfare, crossed 54 crore in India net collections after 17 days, driven by word of mouth rather than a pan-India rollout, according to Oneindia Kannada (20). Rashmika Mandanna's public praise for its lead actress, Thapaswini Poonacha, drew wide attention precisely because Mandanna herself is identified with the pan-India wave and had not appeared in a Kannada film since 2021 (20). Separately, Nani's The Paradise Hindi dub, despite Nani having a limited footprint in Hindi-language circuits and the Telugu original already being called a commercial disappointment, closed with 10.5 crore net and a 31% profit margin against an 8-crore target, according to Koimoi (26). Jailer 2 also crossed 10 crore in three days in Hindi without a national multiplex chain release, relying instead on single screens and regional multiplexes, per Bollywood Hungama (29). These are not pan-India launches in the Baahubali sense, but they are finding Hindi or multi-state audiences anyway.
Big stars are still committing to the format, but hedging and delaying
Allu Arjun's Raaka, directed by Atlee for Sun Pictures with a cast including Deepika Padukone, Rashmika Mandanna, Mrunal Thakur and Janhvi Kapoor, has been pushed from an earlier plan of wrapping this year with a 2027 release to a shoot running into 2027 and a release unlikely before 2028, per a report from Filmibeat Tamil (4). Rashmika Mandanna herself was sidelined from Raaka by a hip tendon injury suffered while filming Mysaa, only returning to the Raaka set in September for a few days before her full portions begin the following month (6, 11). Salman Khan's Monster, directed by Vamshi Paidipally and described as pan-India, is going through a 50-day combat schedule in Mumbai aimed at wrapping by November ahead of an Eid 2027 release (21). Meanwhile Vijay Deverakonda's Ranabaali pushed its first song out across five languages under five different titles ahead of an October 16 release, but even here the overseas dubbed versions were delayed to October 23 because the dubbed content was not finalised in time, a week after the Telugu-only opening (8, 17, 19, 23). And not every star is convinced the format is worth committing to at all: Nagarjuna confirmed King 100 will remain Telugu-only for now, saying he will decide on a pan-India release only after seeing the final cut, and arguing that designing for a Mumbai or Chennai audience distorts dialogue, casting and wardrobe choices (28).
Streaming is becoming a parallel, sometimes preferred, route to pan-India reach
Several of CutMirchi's reports this period are about films reaching multi-language audiences through OTT rather than simultaneous theatrical pan-India release. Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, a Malayalam hit that earned a net of 162 crore in India and a worldwide gross of 327 crore, moved to JioHotstar in the original language plus Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and Kannada dubs even while still playing in theatres, a strategy DNA India describes as mirroring the pan-India rollout of other recent hits (12). Sardar 2, a Tamil film, reached Amazon Prime Video in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada just 21 days after its theatrical debut (13). And Jailer 2's Hindi dub skipped theatrical release in Hindi-speaking regions almost entirely, going straight to OTT four weeks after the Tamil release, a move Mirchi9 reports has angered fans who wanted to see Hrithik Roshan's cameo on the big screen (22). These cases suggest that for some films, the pan-India audience is being chased through streaming rather than day-and-date theatrical windows.
What the coverage does not tell us
This account draws on roughly a month and a half of one site's coverage, so it cannot establish a full-year trend or compare this period against earlier pan-India cycles beyond what individual reports recall. Trade figures such as the Hindi net numbers for Pushpa, RRR, KGF Chapter 2 and Kantara, and the collection figures for The Paradise, Jailer 2 and Premada Oorali, are reported as trade estimates and should be read as such, not as audited totals (1, 20, 26, 29). The coverage also cannot show why audiences respond differently to different pan-India films, whether that is star fatigue, script quality, marketing choices, or something else entirely; CutMirchi's reports describe outcomes and some stated reasons, such as Trivikram Srinivas's banner pulling out of Hanuman Ansh's Telugu release reportedly over dubbing delays and contract friction, but do not offer a systematic explanation across the industry (9).
What to watch
The reset that South cinema is reportedly banking on rests on three unreleased films, Allu Arjun's Raaka, Prabhas' Spirit and Mahesh Babu's Varanasi, none of which have opened (1). Raaka itself has slipped to a prospective 2028 release after shoot delays (4). Ranabaali's full theatrical performance from its October 16 release, along with its delayed overseas dubbed prints from October 23, will be an early test of the current single-song-heavy promotional approach (17, 19, 23). Sundeep Kishan's two-part fantasy Karikaala, with Catherine Tresa, Sakkshi Mhadolkar and Gayatri Bhardwaj now attached and a pooja ceremony held in October, is positioned for pan-India release in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi across July and October 2027 (16, 24, 25). Salman Khan's Monster is aiming to wrap shooting by November for an Eid 2027 release (21). And Kamal Haasan's newly launched MS Subbulakshmi biopic, with Rashmika Mandanna in the lead role and Gowtam Tinnanuri directing, is already being called one of the year's most closely watched pan-Indian announcements, though it remains an early-stage project (7).
Sources
- South Cinema Pins Its Pan-India Comeback On 2027 Slate, reported from Koimoi, Google News · Box Office India
- Toxic's English Version Pulled After Rs 3.16 Lakh Week, reported from Bollywood Hungama - Box Office Analysis, Google News · Bollywood, Bollywood Hungama - Main Feed
- Atlee's Raaka With Allu Arjun Now Pushed To 2028, reported from Filmibeat Tamil - Main Feed
- Rashmika Mandanna Back On Raaka Set After Hip Injury, reported from Bollywood Hungama, Bollywood Hungama - Main Feed
- Kamal Haasan Launches MS Subbulakshmi Biopic With Rashmika Mandanna, reported from Google News · Telugu & Tamil cinema, Pinkvilla
- Vijay Deverakonda's Ranabaali Sets September 21 For First Song, reported from Telugu Bulletin - Movies, 123telugu.com
- Trivikram Srinivas Backs Out Of Hanuman Ansh's Telugu Release, reported from Filmfare
- Rashmika Mandanna Turns Warrior In Mysaa Teaser, reported from Onmanorama - Entertainment, The Free Press Journal
- Bethlehem Kudumba Unit to Stream on JioHotstar from Oct 2, reported from DNA India Entertainment, theweek.in, cinemaexpress.com
- Sardar 2 Hits Amazon Prime Video on Oct 1 Across Five Languages, reported from Track Tollywood
- Catherine Tresa Joins Sundeep Kishan in Mythic Fantasy 'Karikaala', reported from Filmfare, The Times of India Entertainment, The Times of India
- Ranabaali Overseas Dubbed Versions Pushed Back, Telugu Release Unchanged, reported from 123telugu.com
- Vijay Deverakonda's Ranabaali Drops Second Single Kobali Ahead Of Release, reported from TeluguCinema.com, Telugu Bulletin - Movies, 123telugu.com
- Rashmika’s Tribute to Thapaswini Sparks Regional Cinema Reckoning, reported from Oneindia Kannada - Entertainment
- Salman Khan Begins 50-Day Combat Schedule For Monster In Mumbai, reported from Filmfare
- Hrithik Roshan’s Cameo Is Already Lost to the Hindi Audience, reported from Mirchi9
- Ranabaali's 'Kobali' Crosses 20M YouTube Views, reported from TV9 Telugu - Entertainment
- Sakkshi Mhadolkar Joins Sundeep Kishan’s Pan-India Epic Ahead of October 15 Launch, reported from Telugu Bulletin - Movies
- Gayatri Bhardwaj Joins Karikaala Ahead of Pooja, reported from Telugu Bulletin - Movies
- Nani’s The Paradise Hindi Dub Beats Expectations, Ends With 31% Profit Margin, reported from Koimoi - Box Office
- Nagarjuna Confirms King 100 Is Telugu, Not Pan-India, reported from Mirchi9
- Jailer 2 Collection: ₹10 Crore in 3 Days Without National Chain Release, reported from Bollywood Hungama - Box Office Analysis, Bollywood Hungama - Main Feed
This analysis was written by CutMirchi's automated Analysis Desk from the stories listed above and from our release tracker. Figures are as those reports gave them; trade figures are estimates.
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