Stars across industries will tap bigger audiences than ever, says Siddharth Anand Kumar

Multilingual collaborations between regional industries and Hindi cinema are not unusual.  South-Indian divas like Vyjayanthimala, Hema Malini and Sridevi became iconic in Hindi films while newbies Divya Bharti, Aishwarya Rai and Deepika Padukone made their debut in the South. Over the years, stars from both sides,  be they male or female,  have routinely crossed over to explore unfamiliar territories. But an even bigger shift is afoot because now the collaborations are becoming intentional instead of sporadic. With the success of blockbusters like 'Baahubali' and 'K.G.F: Chapter 1' in cinemas and  'Drishyam' and 'C U Soon' on OTT platforms, both industries are realising that the audience they are now catering to is growing bigger by the day and is not limited to a specific region. Soon a spate of films with stars from multiple industries will arrive to engage and target an increasingly diverse fan base.

The budgets are expanding for crossover stories and the idea of pan-Indian cinema has also been reconfigured. The forthcoming Ayan Mukherjee multi-starrer 'Brahmastra' will star Telugu superstar Nagarjuna Akkineni with Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Amitabh Bachchan.
Also creating a massive buzz is 'RRR,' an upcoming Telugu period drama which will star Alia Bhatt as the female lead.
'K.G.F: Chapter 2' starring Kannada superstar Yash will also have  Sanjay Dutt playing the antagonist along with Raveena Tandon.  Another Kannada actor Rashmika Mandanna will star with Siddharth Malhotra in 'Mission Majnu' while Karan Johar will  be producing 'Liger' with Vijay Deverkonda and Ananya Panday.