This week will see the release of Bahubali 2 - The Conclusion and we are likely to witness history in terms of the Hindi version. The word crossover is frequently used in our industry and although the crossover does not really happen the PR companies and media wants the world to believe the story. When a poor film like;The Lunchbox goes a little outside the NRI audience abroad it is said to be a crossover the film but genuine crossover is when you are competing with the local films and this was never the case. When some of our actors land bit parts in Hollywood it is believed they have crossed over though its another matter that the audience there has no idea who they are. A couple of heroines are believed to have crossed over and although they have managed much better parts than their male counterparts, they are still generally unknown and hardly competing with local actresses which would be a genuine crossover.

This crossover is all fake and the fact remains we don't crossover at home forget about abroad. The film industry has been around for 100 years and till now the Hindi markets and South divide remains. A Hindi film can't compete with its counterparts down South be it the biggest grosser like Dangal or Sultan and its ditto for a South film although that maybe about to change.

Till date there has been one crossover film and that was Sholay in 1975. That film did more business in the South Indian markets than the highest grossing South Indian films. The film did a GROSS box office of 6.25 crore and no Tamil or Telugu film had even crossed 5 crore GROSS at the time. Sholay was not even dubbed which makes the numbers even more incredible. Bahubali (2015) did very well in the Hindi markets but it was hardly competing with the biggest Hindi grossers to call it a genuine crossover film but what Bahubali could not do it is very much possible that Bahubali 2 - The Conclusion may do.

Bahubali (2015) did well enough the theatres but it was television where it broke all records and Bahubali 2 - The Conclusion will be the huge beneficiary of that. The Hindi version did not break the record on its television premiere but what it did in its repeat screenings makes Bahubali (Hindi) the film the biggest blockbuster ever on television in the satellite era.

Basically Bahubali 2 - The Conclusion is the Sholay of the South and if the content actually works then something really special will unfold over the next week or so and not just down South but across India.

On A Side Note - The craze of this film has hit a crescendo in the past few days but there is tracking company who are trying (they can be read about here) to make the industry believe that the craze for the Hindi version was the highest at the time of theatrical trailer as they drop predictions by around 15-20% and there will probably be some takers in the industry for this also. It is all fake and collections tomorrow should prove this to the industry and its lucky that this is not a big Hindi film where the makers follow the company as their campaign would be all over the place due to false information.