Will Khiladi Do For Ravi Teja What Pushpa Did For Allu Arjun?

Straightaway, the answer to the above question: doubtful. It is  unlikely that  Ravi Teja can encore Allu Arjun’s spectacular success.

In fact  every major Telugu  A-lister is  hoping for  the same and planning pan-India  projects  accordingly. The  one likely to crack the pan-India code  from Andhra  Pradesh after  Allu Arjun is Vijay Deverakonda  whose Liger is a  lavish action drama in Hindi and Telugu. Producer Karan  Johar who has  taken a shine to   Deverakonda is  leaving no   stone unturned to ensure Deverakonda  is the next pan-India superstar from Telugu cinema.

However before Deverekonda  ,the next two A-listers  from Telugu cinema  to try their luck in the Hindi belt are NTR Jr and Ramcharan Teja  in Rajamouli’s RRR. Rajamouli is  confident that  the two regional superstars will find  all-India acceptance  . Incidentally Teja flopped miserably in his  Hindi debut  , a remake of Amitabh  Bachchan’s  Zanjeer in 2013.

But Before NTR and  Ramcharan  there is Ravi Teja whose Khiladi  releases on  11 February. Teja is  confident he will  get across to the Hindi belt with his action thriller where he  has a double  role.

Dubbed the ‘Masala Maharaja’  in Andhra  and Telangana, Ravi Teja has long been desirous of  crossing over into Hindi cinema. Back in 2013 he met director Samir Karnik(of Heroes and Yamla Pagla Deewana)  who flew down to Hyderabad with the proposal to shoot Kaur & Singh , a Hindi-Telugu bi-lingual with Ravi in  a double  role.The Telugu superstar liked what he heard and has agreed to do Karnik’s film.

Back then in  an interview  Ravi Teja(who has been  off the press ever since a drugs scandal five years  ago)  said he’s looking forward to his Hindi debut. “I wanted to do a Hindi film for the longest time. But a proper one and a good production. I’m even open to multi-starrers because those work better in Bollywood. But it should be with only Bollywood technicians, not the South Indian team. There’s no point to my going to Bollywood if I work with the same artistes and technicians. Hum banjare hain( I am gypsy). I’ve struggled a lot to get where I am. I initially got rejected by every producer in Andhra. But no complaints. I enjoyed each and every moment of the struggle. My first break came in 1997 from KrishnaVamsi and then Puri Jagannadh who is my closest friend. I owe everything I am to him. Our careers have evolved simultaneously.”

Khiladi has been in trouble for  some time now,what with the reports  in Andhra that  Ravi Teja  has  been at loggerheads  with  director  Ramesh Varma through the making of the film and had even refused  to dub leading to  speculation that the film’s release may be postponed.