A lot of the biggest Bollywood hits are remakes of South films: Pawan Kumar Wadeyar

Bollywood has always been fascinated by south cinema, states film director Pavan Kumar Wadeyar. “Over the decades, Bollywood has either remade south films, or borrowed the best of our technicians – directors, cinematographers, sound designers etc, to make their films and of late, even cast south actors in lead or significant roles in their films. In fact, many of Bollywood’s biggest hits have been remakes of south films,” says Pavan, who is one among the many south directors is directing a Bollywood film.

Close on the heels of the critically acclaimed Kannada film Dollu, starring actor-director Sagar Puranik, Pavan had also begun supporting yet another culturally-rooted Kannada film called Venky with Sagar. However, Pavan highlights the fact that even though Dollu won as many international awards as it did, the film still does not have takers on OTT and satellite rights. “This is the reality. As filmmakers, we try to generate good content, support new talent and win critical acclaim for it too. But we still do not have our audience coming out to support and watch these films. This is the same audience who say they want us to make better films. This is probably also the same audience that queues up to watch a Malayalam film even if they do not know the language. So, the issue is not about not wanting to go to the theatres to watch a film, it is probably about not being aware of the good content generated in the Kannada film industry. This year alone, enough and more good Kannada films were released, but have had to phase out due to no audience support. Maybe the audience needs to consider setting aside what corporates call a CSR fund – set aside some ticket money specifically to go watch Kannada films. And if they find it good, then the film is sure to continue to run its due course in the cinema halls,” suggests Pavan.