Indian cinema A-lister Allu Arjun is delighting in his best actor win at India’s National Film Awards for “Pushpa: The Rise – Part 1.”
Directed by Sukumar and produced by Mythri Movie Makers, the film traces the rise of Molleti Pushpa Raj (Arjun), a labourer who rises through the ranks of a sandalwood smuggling syndicate and faces off against an egotistic police officer.
The Telugu-language film was also dubbed into other Indian languages and went on to become the biggest box office hit of 2021 in the country. It is the first time an actor from the Telugu-language film industry has won the best actor accolade at the National Film Awards in India.
“Getting the national award is the highest official respect you can get,” Arjun told Variety. “What we realized was that in 69 years of Telugu cinema, while other technicians and directors have won, no actor had won best actor at the national awards. So that was a pathbreaking achievement and became the pride of the Telugu people. I was glad that I could contribute to it in a small way.”
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Arjun attributes the film’s success to its rootedness. “It’s the common man factor, it’s the characterizations’ attitude that really connected across all languages,” Arjun said. “We wanted to make very authentic, rustic, rooted storytelling. I think that authenticity and honesty paid off, we were not trying to be somebody else, we were trying to be who we are and still trying to appeal to everybody else. It’s like how they say, going local is going global.”
The huge success of “Pushpa 1” means that expectations are high for “Pushpa 2: The Rule,” which is due in mid-2024. “For starters ‘Pushpa 2’ will be a notch above ‘Pushpa 1,’ to my expectations. It’s got more adrenaline rush moments,” Arjun said.
The recent global success of “RRR” is prompting India to look beyond its shores and its diaspora market. “It has opened the doors and the minds of people that there is something beyond our regular traditional markets that we need to go explore. All of Indian cinema is on the same mindset, for us to expand our market and our reach as much as possible,” Arjun said.
As part of this expansion, the actor said that there are plans to sign up with a Hollywood agent. “It’s time for all Indian actors to think globally, because India is going to be a global superpower. All businesses in India will flourish and so will the Indian film industry,” Arjun said. “I feel in less than 10 years from now, Indian cinema will be viewed all over the world, like how Korean dramas have been watched all over the world, with a very high probability for India to be in the same spot in the coming decade. It’s really a golden era for entertainment industry in India.”
Meanwhile, Arjun says his acting ambitions lie squarely within the commercial space. “My sole aim is to bring great performances in commercial cinema. ‘Pushpa’ is a commercial film. There is performance in commercial cinema,” Arjun said. “It’s a mindset that if you want to do a great artistic film, you need to do a small film and if you need to do a commercial film, you need to do a film that has got less performance. I genuinely feel commercial cinema has tremendous scope for artistic performances – it’s just that we don’t explore it. I want to pick up those kinds of stories and narratives where they have performances and great commercial moments, which I think will be very unique.”
Next up for Arjun are films with Trivikram Srinivas, with whom he worked with previously on hit film “Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo,” and Sandeep Reddy Vanga, the filmmaker behind “Arjun Reddy.”
