'Bollywood kabhi khatam nahi hoga,' says Rohit Shetty on North-South cinema debate

With South Indian films like Pushpa: The Rise (2021), RRR (2022) and KGF: Chapter 3 (2022) creating waves and Bollywood big releases falling flat at the box office, naysayers got a chance to say that the Hindi film industry is breathing its last. This soon turned into a national debate with actors from across industries pitching in their views, often leading to conflicts and controversies.

Filmmaker Rohit Shetty also spoke on the debate recently and said that rising popularity of south Indian films across India should not be seen as an indication that Bollywood films have lost their charm.

Shetty added that both north and south Indian cinemas have enough scope to do well. Hence, there was no competition between the two.

"The trend of 'Bollywood khatam' (Bollywood is over) will never happen. In the 1980s, when VCRs came to the forefront, people said that theatre will go out of business and that Bollywood is finished. Then recently with the boom of OTT, many people said that Bollywood is finished. So… Bollywood kabhi khatam nahi hoga (Bollywood will never end),” said Rohit.

He went on to add, "When you'll check the history, you will learn that south film industry is there since the 50s and 60s. Shashi Kapoor's Pyaar Kiye Jaa was remake of a south film. In the 1980s, when Amitabh Bachchan and Vinod Khanna were at their peak, a new boy entered into cinema world, Kamal Haasan sir with Ek Duje Ke Liye, and it was a hit."

Highlighting the contribution of south Indian artists in the Hindi film industry, Rohit Shetty further gave examples of Sridevi and Jaya Prada who entered Bollywood after working in the South industry and managed to achieve superstardom even in the north.

On professional front, Rohit Shetty will be making his OTT debut with Indian Police Force starring Sidharth Malhotra for Amazon Prime Video. Besides, he also has finished filming Cirkus which stars Ranveer Singh in a dual role alongside Pooja Hegde, Jacqueline Fernandez and Varun Sharma.

The film is officially adapted from Angoor (1982) which was based on Shakespeare's play The Comedy of Errors. Cirkus also features Deepika Padukone and Ajay Devgn in special appearances and is slated to release on 23 December 2022.