In the film industry, every era will see a trend and everyone goes the same way. However, there have been some checks and balances that have to be followed to make it look nice. One such trend that has been resonating a lot and louder is that of the 'Pan India' trend which is a good beginning but at the same time, it has become more of a style rather than substance.
In a way, it has brought many benefits. It started with Baahubali but it is covid lockdowns that took this to an entirely new level with millions of North Indian fans watching south Indian films and becoming hardcore fans of our south actors. This resulted in disasters for Bollywood releases as audiences lapped up south films, especially those from Telugu because they connect with our actors and particularly after Sushanth Singh Rajput's demise there has been a boycott trend against nepotism and nepo kids in Hindi industry.
Keeping aside these things, however, a disadvantage or an unnecessary trend has started where every big film is declared pan India and all the hype is given on the same level. One thing that everyone has to remember is that content makes it pan India and not just hype and budget. Liger is one such example, while Karthikeya 2 is an example on the positive side. Even actors started branding themselves as Pan India and this has become a style these days.
One notable exception is Tamil star 'Makkal Selvan' Vijay Sethupathy who said in an interview recently that he is an actor who would love to work in all Indian languages but humbly requested to take away the Pan India tag being given to him. Even Sridevi, Rajinikanth and our own Nagarjuna did big Bollywood projects but they didn't run around with any tags. We need to appreciate Vijay for his bold yet humble statement that Pan India is more about hype not substance and he would prefer to be called an actor.
It is indeed a wakeup call for many actors in the South who think it's fashionable to be given the pan India tag and behave like the whole country is waiting for them. Let their movies and content speak for itself and not artificial trends.
