Mahesh Spyder set to thrill his peers

Even though Baahubali franchise (dubbed into various languages) rocked the box-office world over, including Tamil Nadu, but among Gen X superstars, it is Mahesh Babu who begins the fad of a genuine Telugu-Tamil bilingual with ‘Spyder’ and set to expand his horizons among Tamil-speaking viewers. “Doing a bilingual is a daunting task since we have to do the same scene `twice’ in two languages which was quite exhausting.

But we were motivated by ace director Murugadoss’ vision and dedication. As we could complete the massive film in a record time,” said Mahesh Babu, at an event in Chennai. “Even though, I was born and brought up in Chennai, it took 18 years for me to do a Tamil film,” he added. No prizes for guessing as the distributors in Tamil Nadu grabbed the distribution rights for much-hyped ‘Spyder’ for more than Rs 15 crore and planning a massive release on September 27. “It is true that Mahesh Babu has opened the gates for his colleagues in Tamil Nadu with ‘Spyder’.

In fact, he was the most popular Telugu hero among Tamil viewers who patronized his dubbed movies and some of his blockbusters were remade in Tamil, so he has strong connect with Tamil movie buffs,” says leading director P Vasu. Actually, Nagarjuna started this trend way back in 90’s with ‘Rakshakudu’(Rakshagan) but it tanked at the box-office and shut the doors for bilinguals.

“Tastes of Telugu and Tamil viewers varies a lot. Hence bilinguals were not considered a safe bet. Apparently, Telugu stars Chiranjeevi, Balakrishna and Pawan Kalyan dubbed their films in Tamil and released in selective pockets, while Mahesh film will get released in more than 200-odd theatres to change the dynamics of Telugu cinema. If it works, more Telugu stars will follow suit,” concludes leading distributor Rukmangadhan.