This One Scene Changed The Indian Cinema Forever
It broke the monopoly of Bollywood over Indian cinema
We have much to thank S S Rajamouli for. Not only did he garner praise and respect for Indian cinema through his latest movie RRR, but was also a trailblazer in starting the Pan India movement in Indian cinema. He also paved a path to making high-budget and big-scale movies in India that only a few directors like Sanjay Leela Bhansali had the confidence and success record to do.
But his biggest contribution, in my opinion, has been exposing the Hindu hatred of Bollywood through this one scene in his pan-India movie Baahubali. In this scene, Prabhas is shown lifting Shivling and respectfully taking it with him on his shoulder to keep it under a waterfall. Even though he is a youngster who doesn’t believe much in God, he respects his mother’s faith in her God. Hence, he doesn’t disrespect Shivling or destroy it(the way Bollywood might have shown it) but finds a way to reduce his mother’s burden and at the same time maintaining respect for God. You may watch that scene here:
Unfortunately for Bollywood, this movie was a pan-India release with good-quality Hindi dubbing. Even the distributors of this movie for the Hindi-speaking audience, Dharma Productions, may not have predicted the impact of this simple yet powerful scene on their own industry, Bollywood. The rise and widespread reach of social media only made it worse for the Hindi movie industry. Today the photo of Shiva (Prabhas) walking with Shivling on his shoulder has become synonymous with respecting Hindu culture while P.K. (Aamir) chasing an actor dressed as Shiva is synonymous with disrespecting Hindu culture. The rise of OTT during the pandemic further worsened the image of Bollywood and today Indian audiences, especially the Hindi-speaking ones, are rejecting even the good movies of Bollywood.
This has, however, made the Hindi-speaking audience become interested in South Indian movies and they have witnessed how those movies either respect Hindu culture and Gods or don’t indulge in anything related to Hinduism. Even when such movies expose deep-rooted issues in society such as the caste system, the audience doesn’t get offended. Because the social issues is not part of the original Hindu culture but its corrupted version and the filmmakers and the audience want to get rid of such vices. Today, movies like KGF2 show Kali maa with the respect she deserves, Karthikeya 2 urges people to consider that Krishna is our history, not mythology, and Kantara introduces people to native culture and their deep-rooted beliefs in their deities — they are becoming blockbusters, with Hindi audience contributing a significant portion of their box office collection. Had Tumbbad been released in 2022 (4 years after its actual release date), it would also have become a blockbuster.
Thank you S. S. Rajamouli sir for paving a path to a better future for Indian cinema. Had Baahubali not been released when it did, followed by movies like KGF and Pushpa, Bollywood could have gone back to its nasty tendency to insult or demean Hindu culture. The seed of thought that the scene in Baahubali sowed in every Hindu’s mind finally grew into a better understanding of how the soft power of India is being used to make Hindus feel ashamed about their culture. It is this understanding that made people question Bollywood’s crap even before the pandemic and then openly reject them after the pandemic subsided.
Finally, the current situation is that just when I had thought I had seen the best movie of the year, RRR, a Kannada movie, Kantara, has been released that gives a tough fight for this title. South India continues to reward us with such wonderful movies. Looking at the trailer of Bhediya, I feel hopeful that perhaps Bollywood is also moving away from targeting Hindu sentiments and towards good quality entertainment. Hope it keeps moving in this direction.
