3 min readKozhikodeJan 25, 2026 03:46 PM IST
Prakash Raj is one of the few actors who have worked in five film industries within India — Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Hindi — consistently for the past 38 years. He has seen decent success across the board, but the veteran actor now feels that the Tamil and Malayalam films are far superior than Hindi cinema, which has gone away from its roots ever since the multiplex era kicked in in the mid 2000s.
“In the present context, I feel Malayalam and Tamil cinema are making very strong films. Hindi cinema, on the other hand, has lost its roots. Everything looks beautiful, wonderful, like plastic, as you see in the Madame Tussauds museum. We (the South) still have stories to tell, the new young directors of Tamil are talking about Dalit issues. And that gives so much of hope,” said Prakash during the Kerala Literature Festival in Kozhikode on Saturday.
He added, “After multiplexes, the Bombay film industry started making films only for multiplexes. Very cute films and things like that. Because they were running well. They went into that Page 3 culture, and with that lost the touch with rural Rajasthan and Bihar.”
Prakash Raj recalled that post Independence, Hindi cinema stayed close to its secular roots. He quoted the example of Manmohan Desai’s 1977 blockbuster comedy Amar Akbar Anthony, where Amitabh Bachchan’s character Anthony Gonsalves, Rishi Kapoor’s Akbar Ilhabadi, and Vinod Khanna’s Amar Khanna cut across their religions to join forces and donate blood to save a life.
“Now, it’s not like that anymore. Today, it’s all about money and appearances — reels, page 3 coverage, and loud self-promotion. In the process, I feel the industry has lost its connection with the audience,” argued Prakash, who was last seen in Aanand L Rai’s hit romantic drama Tere Ishk Mein last year.
Prakash Raj was already a widely known name in the South when he made his Bollywood debut with Krishna Vamsi’s 2002 action film Shakti – The Power. He went to star in memorable films like Rajkumar Santoshi’s Khakee (2004), Rohit Shetty’s Singham (2011), Prabhu Deva’s Wanted (2009), Arbaaz Khan’s Dabangg 2 (2012), Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013), Sabbir Khan’s Heropanti (2014), Shetty’s Golmaal Again (2017), and Revathy’s Salaam Venky (2022).
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He will be next seen reuniting with Adivi Sesh in the action film Dacoit, being made both in Hindi and Telugu, which is slated to release in cinemas this Eid on March 19. Previously, Raj shared screen space with Sesh in Sashi Kiran Tikka’s 2022 bilingual action drama Major.
