Telugu Stars Wake Up: Call Pan-India Term Stupid and Abused

Noted actor Nani has taken a dig at one of the most overused terms in Indian cinema today — “Pan-India.” Speaking about The Paradise, the actor made it clear that while the film will release in multiple languages, its primary target audience remains Telugu.

“Stop using the term ‘Pan-India.’ It’s an overused and abused term. Paradise will be released in all languages, but our target is mainly the Telugu market,” Nani said.

Nani’s comments come at a time when almost every major regional film is being positioned as a Pan-India project, irrespective of its scale, content or actual market potential. What started as a description of a film’s ability to travel across regions has gradually evolved into a marketing label attached to projects of all sizes.

“Nani has got it right. It is not just overused anymore — it is misused,” says a top producer. “The Pan-India tag is being used even for smaller films and non-star projects. Telugu actors and filmmakers need to realise that the North Indian market is not waiting to buy every Telugu film. Those days are gone. Instead, they should focus on their core strength — the Telugu audience.”

According to the producer, the industry should first concentrate on making strong local stories that can succeed on their own before aggressively attempting to expand into other markets.

“I would like to see actors such as Vijay Deverakonda with Ranabali, Nikhil Siddhartha with Swayambhu, Naga Chaitanya with Vrushakarma and Vishwak Sen with Legacy focus strongly on winning the Telugu audience first. If the content works here, other markets will naturally follow,” he adds.

Interestingly, Rana Daggubati, who was among the actors who helped popularise the concept through the Baahubali franchise, has also questioned the relevance of the term. He had earlier described “Pan-India” as a stupid term, while acknowledging that it was initially useful because there was no proper terminology to describe regional films making a significant impact in North India.

However, with the growth of the internet and OTT platforms, language and geographical barriers have largely disappeared, making the term increasingly redundant.

Producer Ravi Shankar Yellamanchili, who has tasted success with both large-scale Pan-India projects and Telugu-centric films, also believes the industry needs to rethink its approach.

“I agree that regional cinema and Hindi cinema are two different segments, and we need to understand that difference,” he says.

According to him, attaching the Pan-India tag can dramatically inflate a film’s scale and, consequently, its budget.

“A Telugu film may initially be planned at around ₹50 crore. But once the Pan-India label is attached, the budget can increase four to five times because the makers start thinking about multiple markets, bigger stars, wider releases and larger production values. That makes recovery much more difficult,” he explains.

He cites Irumudi as an example of what Telugu filmmakers could learn from. Made on a comparatively controlled budget, the film reportedly managed to deliver strong returns after collecting around ₹200 crore.

“That is the kind of model Telugu producers and directors should seriously look at,” Ravi Shankar says. “There are so many stories that can be made within Telugu budgets and still become commercially successful. We need more films like Irumudi rather than automatically turning every project into a Pan-India production.”

“Prabhas and Allu Arjun have created a clear identity in the Hindi market, but that does not mean every Telugu star can replicate it,” says a Hindi distributor. “The Hindi audience remains strongly attached to its own stars, with names like Sunny Deol, Ranbir Kapoor, Ranveer Singh and Akshay Kumar continuing to command attention. Telugu stars and filmmakers need to rethink their strategy rather than assuming the Pan-India tag itself will bring audiences.”