This new concept of Pan India Movies is nothing new at all! As a matter of fact, it was S.S.Vasan of Gemini Studios who could possibly be hailed as one of the fore-runners to showcase this concept of churning out Pan India films as early as in 1948 with Chandralekha, a historical adventure tale laced with mammoth set decorations and punctuated by a stellar cast, which he produced and directed!
It took five years to produce the film which was announced and began in 1943 only to be wrapped up and released in 1948! From the moment, the announcement was made, the film made first in Tamil and then in Hindi was the costliest production of that era! Advertising Campaigns were set to roll soon after the announcement was made and several lakhs of rupees were spent! Hoardings and Banners were erected in almost all major metros which was a novelty then!
AVM Productions too made films for audience all over the country but during that time, those ventures weren’t branded as Pan India Films as being done now! Interestingly, AVM’s Vazhkai (1949) was also a Pan India film which was released in Telugu as Jeevitham in 1950. It was remade in Hindi as Bahar in 1951! Vyjayanthimala was the heroine in all the three movies.
If films that were received with good response all over the country, movies of Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar could might as well be branded as Pan India Movies!
Following that a gap had set in and Manirathnam rose up with a phoenix with Roja, truly a Pan India product which continued to keep the box-office bells ringing for long, on a Pan India basis!
Cut to the present, Bahubali, Bahubali 2: The Conclusion, RRR –all in Telugu, KGF, KGF 2 in Kannada, so on and so forth.
As far as the South Film World is concerned, besides Tamil Telugu and Kannada movies, Malayalam movies have also joined the race!
Remember Lucifer (2019) with Mohanlal in the lead which was helmed by Prithviraj? A sequel carrying the title, Emburan is underway which is touted to be Pan India Film!
As far as the film industry is concerned the present trend of films and filmmakers appear to be focused upon making Pan India films so that they reach a wider audience on a broader perceptive!
Resultantly, budgets are going to shoot up as more stars may to be brought on board leading to hefty production costs! Whether the revenue generated will score over the costs which would happen only when the film scores well at the box-office is what that remains to be seen!