World Actors Here, Will Films Go There?

Back in the day, SS Rajamouli cast lots of British actors for his film “RRR” and the movie worked out well at the box office. But then, by casting foreign actors, are we getting an opening in those countries? Usually, we cast North Indian Bollywood actors, Tamil stars, Malayalam actors because we would get openings and business in the north because of them. Now that Tollywood is banking a lot on foreign actors in their films, many are wondering what this plan is about.

In the upcoming Ranabali featuring Vijay Devarakonda, Mummy fame actor Arnold Vosloo was roped in to do the role of a British villain. At the same time, Prabhas’ Spirit has Korean actor Ma Dong-seok aka Don Lee roped in as the antagonist. Similarly, in Jr NTR’s Dragon, there are a bunch of foreign actors. The same is the case with SS Rajamouli’s Varanasi too. For the role of Britishers, we need some white people to play it, as there’s no other option. But for other movies, casting foreign actors is an intentional choice, and many are wondering if the idea is to take those films to a pan-world level.

However, even if Hollywood films cast the likes of Alia Bhatt and Priyanka Chopra, those films haven’t seen great openings here. At the same time, if Indian films cast foreign actors just like that, it wouldn’t mean instant gratification from the box office of the respective countries. But if the roles of those foreign actors click, then the movie might get terrific attention at the box office in the West and the East as well.