Is there a formula to make a blockbuster pan-India film? Superstar Nagarjuna feels there is only one ingredient of success: Stay rooted to your native language, and the honesty will transcend language barriers. Nagarjuna, who has headlined some of the biggest Indian blockbusters over the decades, says the pan-India success of Telugu films like Pushpa and Baahubali, as well as Kannada actioner KGF, points to the fact that the Indian audience wants their heroes to be larger than life.

Nagarjuna at WAVES 2025 

At the WAVES Summit 2025, Nagarjuna said there is a reason why Allu Arjun`s Pushpa franchise earned more in Hindi than Telugu, as the audience in the North was craving to see stars in a tentpole movie set-up, like the Sukumar directorial or Yash`s blockbuster KGF series. "Both the Pushpa films made more money in the North than in Telugu. We have seen similar stories in Telugu before, like Pushpa, which has larger-than-life heroes. Whereas in the North—in Bihar, UP, and Punjab—they wanted to see their heroes like Pushpa Raj, Yash in KGF, or Baahubali. They wanted to see larger-than-life heroes. For Indian people and culture, just living day to day is difficult, and when they want to overcome the stress by watching films, they want to see magic on screen.”