The pan-India film wave that began with S.S. Rajamouli’s Baahubali in 2015 is showing clear signs of exhaustion. Telugu star Nani recently refused to label his upcoming film The Paradise as a pan-India project, calling the term “over-abused.” His comment captures a growing reality: the label that once promised a national audience no longer guarantees success. Box office data from 2025 and 2026 paints a stark picture of a trend losing steam.
The Baahubali Effect and Its Aftermath
The release of Baahubali: The Beginning in 2015 changed Indian cinema forever. Made on a budget of ₹180 crore, the film earned ₹650 crore across languages, with its Hindi version alone collecting nearly ₹120 crore. Its sequel, Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017), became the first Indian film to cross the ₹1,000 crore mark worldwide. The film drew 110 million footfalls in India, the highest after Sholay.
These numbers convinced filmmakers across the South that any big-budget film could travel beyond its home market. The success of KGF, Pushpa, and RRR reinforced this belief. What followed was an industry-wide rush to slap the pan-India label on every large-scale project.
The Box Office Reality of 2025 and 2026
The data tells a different story now. According to Ormax Media, the share of southern films dubbed in Hindi as a percentage of total Hindi box office collections fell to just 7.1% in 2025, down from 31.2% in 2024. This is a dramatic collapse of the dubbed South film market in the Hindi belt.
The 2025 report from Ormax also revealed that 93% of Hindi box office collections came from original Hindi films, not dubbed southern content. Hindi cinema had its best-ever year with ₹5,504 crore in gross box office, while the combined share of the four South languages dropped from 48% to 44%.
The failures have continued into 2026. Prabhas’ The Raja Saab, mounted on a reported budget of ₹450 crore, collected just ₹143 crore domestically by its 15th day. Ram Charan’s Peddi wrapped its Hindi run with only ₹22.46 crore net, making it his lowest-grossing Hindi release in the post-COVID era.
Yash’s Toxic, expected to enter the ₹1,000 crore club, managed only ₹339 crore worldwide by September 10, 2026, falling short of its landing cost by around ₹230 crore. Even the Baahubali re-release, titled Baahubali: The Epic, earned a mere ₹6 crore in Hindi.
Why the Formula Stopped Working
Industry experts point to several reasons for the decline. A major factor is the lack of universal themes in recent pan-India attempts. Hindi scriptwriter Jaidev Hemmady noted that recent southern films aimed at national audiences follow a formulaic approach without stories that connect across cultures.
Producer Ameya Naik explained that the idea of a pan-India film has been reduced to mere pan-India casting. Simply bringing in actors from different regions does not make a film pan-India. He said focusing more on casting than on rooted stories is a recipe for failure.
Director Anurag Kashyap has been one of the most vocal critics of this trend. He called the pan-India concept a “massive scam,” arguing that a film becomes pan-India only after it performs across the country, not before it is even made.
“A film becomes pan-India only if it performs pan-India. How can a film be labeled as pan-India before it’s even made?” — Anurag Kashyap
Kashyap also pointed out that much of the budget goes into extravagant sets rather than meaningful content. He estimated that only about 1% of these films actually succeed.
Nani’s Refusal and What It Signals
Nani’s decision to distance The Paradise from the pan-India label is not an isolated incident. It reflects a broader shift in how filmmakers view the term. At a recent press conference, he was direct about his reasoning.
“We don’t want to call it a pan-India film. It’s an over-abused word. Apart from Telugu, it’s releasing in a few other languages. Definitely, Telugu is our prime target.” — Nani
His statement comes as the industry reckons with the fallout of overusing the label. When every big film is marketed as pan-India, the term loses its meaning. Audiences have also become more selective, relying on word-of-mouth rather than pre-release hype.
The Hindi Audience Has Moved On
The Hindi-speaking audience, once the biggest prize for southern filmmakers, has shifted its attention back to original Hindi content. Dhurandhar emerged as the highest-grossing film of 2025 with ₹950 crore, setting a new record for a Hindi-language film. Content-driven films like Chhaava and Saiyaara also performed strongly.
Trade analyst Komal Nahta offered a measured view on the situation. He said people who thought every South film called pan-India would click were wrong. He noted that the success ratio remains the same as before: about 15% of films work and 85% do not.
Nahta also pointed to upcoming projects like Pushpa 3 and S.S. Rajamouli’s Varanasi starring Mahesh Babu and Priyanka Chopra, saying these films will generate huge openings and change the conversation again.
Ticket Prices and Changing Habits
High ticket prices have played a significant role in keeping audiences away. Data from 2025 showed that the average ticket price rose by 20%, from ₹134 to ₹161. For several big-ticket South films, prices ranged from ₹100 to as high as ₹3,000 per person.
Producer Suresh Babu dismissed the idea that theatre footfalls are rising. He said audiences today come to theatres only for good films and reject bad ones. With multiple entertainment options available, habitual theatre visits have dropped.
Ormax Media reported that 2025 registered 83.2 crore footfalls, a 6% decline from 2024. The box office grew only because of higher ticket prices, not because more people were watching films in theatres.
A Course Correction Is Needed
Director Anil Ravipudi, whose film Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu was made on a ₹28 crore production budget and collected ₹300 crore, has called for a balance. He argued that pan-India stars should return to doing smaller regional films.
“If these stars take the risk of returning to smaller films and strike a balance by doing both pan-India and regional cinema, the bubble around pan-India status will burst.” — Anil Ravipudi
He warned that the current model, where all top stars release films in January followed by a six-month dry spell, is forcing single-screen theatres to shut down. He believes the regional market has immense stamina and can stabilise the ecosystem.
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The Road Ahead for Regional Cinema
The decline of the pan-India label does not mean regional cinema is failing. Films like Sankranthiki Vasthunam, Court, and Little Hearts found success in 2025 by focusing on strong storytelling rather than scale.
Young actors like Teja Sajja, Kiran Abbavaram, and Mouli delivered hits with smaller films, proving that audiences are willing to back fresh faces and rooted stories. The success of the Malayalam film Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra, which collected over ₹184 crore on a ₹30 crore budget, shows that compelling content can still travel far.
Analysts suggest that the root cause of the pan-India decline lies in a shortage of universal themes and repetitive storytelling. Relying solely on star power from different regions is no longer enough. The era of Baahubali may be fading, but it has left behind a valuable lesson: content, not labels, drives success.
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