Mani Ratnam says “Hindi films can stop calling themselves Bollywood films”

Filmmaker Mani Ratnam is currently gearing up for the release of magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan 2 next week, the director talked about south Indian films’ seminal influence on world cinema at the second edition of CII Dakshin Media and Entertainment Summit in Chennai. Mani Ratnam opened up about Hindi film industry referring to itself as Bollywood,

As the member of the panel that discussed south Indian cinema’s impact on a global scale after the recent success of movies such as RRR, Pushpa: The Rise, Kantara and KGF: Chapter 2. Mani Ratnam was one of the member including filmmakers like Vetrimaaran and Basil Joseph and Rishab Shetty.

When the conversation steered towards Indian cinema being constantly referred to as Bollywood in the west, Mani Ratnam said, “If Hindi cinema can stop calling themselves Bollywood, then people will stop identifying Indian cinema as Bollywood.” Vetrimaaran had the same view. He said, “I’m not a fan of the ‘woods’. Like Bollywood, Kollywood. We need to see it as Indian cinema on the whole.”

Vetrimaaran further added, “The more rooted that art is the more universal the appeal is. The impact is created because we are telling stories of our people and of our lands,” he said.

While Rishab Shetty called Kantara the lowest budget pan-Indian movie. He also reiterated that the more local, rooted your story is, the wider will be the acceptance. At the event, Prem Rakshit, the choreographer for the Oscar winning song Naatu Naatu (RRR) and Kartiki Gonsalves, Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker were honoured.