Overview

• Pawan Kalyan calls for renaming ‘Indian cinema’ as Bharateeya Chitra Parishrama to acknowledge the unique identities of regional industries.
• He argued Bollywood’s embrace of globalisation and profit motives has weakened its link to India’s cultural and rural heritage, reducing characters to ‘buffoonery’.
• Kalyan cited films like Dangal as rare examples of Bollywood capturing Indian ethos but said such rooted storytelling has become scarce.
• He highlighted South Indian cinema’s 70–80% rural audience base as key to preserving cultural authenticity and boosting its appeal domestically and abroad.
• Kalyan is set to star in the period action drama Hari Hara Veera Mallu on July 24 and the thriller They Call Him OG on September 25.