At the second CII Dakshin Media and Entertainment Summit in Chennai on Wednesday, director Mani Ratnam discussed the foundational impact of South Indian cinema on world cinema as he prepares for the release of the sequel in the Ponniyin Selvan franchise next week. During the panel discussion, Mani Ratnam asserted that Hindi films in other Indian languages will receive more recognition if the Hindi cinema industry can cease referring to itself as Bollywood.The two-day event will see over 60 speakers and almost seven hundred delegates from across India, including, actors, directors, producers, national heads of OTT platforms and many other.The Indian film director, screenwriter and producer, Mani Ratnam was one of the panelists who spoke about the influence of South Indian cinema after the worldwide success of movies like RRR, Pushpa: The Rise, Kantara and KGF: Chapter 2. Apart from Ratnam, filmmakers Vetrimaaran and Basil Joseph as well as actor-director Rishab Shetty were also on the panel.When Mani Ratnam was asked how Indian cinema was frequently referred to as Bollywood in the West, he said, “If Hindi cinema can stop calling themselves Bollywood, then people will stop identifying Indian cinema as Bollywood.” The same idea was reinforced by National Award-winning director Vetrimaaran. “Kollywood, like Bollywood. We must consider it to be Indian film as a whole,” he said.Glimpses of #CIIDakshin2023 Celebration by celebrities #BeyondBorders @sujataa_HMM #Manirathnam pic.twitter.com/kfXYPz7zph— CII Dakshin (@CiiDakshin) April 19, 2023Vetrimaaran emphasised the significance of delivering more rooted stories in his welcoming address to be widely accepted. “Art has a more global appeal when it is more deeply embedded. We are making an effect by sharing the histories of our ancestors and our native landscapes”, he said.Kannada actor, Rishabh Shetty who also witnessed the event, reiterated the same in his speech. Shetty called Kantara the lowest-budget pan-India movie. He also stated the more local and rooted the story is, the wider will be the acceptance.#Panchuruli Speaks 🤩 #CIIDakshin2023 ❤️🔥 @shetty_rishab #Kantara pic.twitter.com/NbshHSAmlk— CII Dakshin (@CiiDakshin) April 19, 2023During the Summit, Prem Rakshit, the choreographer of the Oscar-winning song Naatu Naatu (RRR), and Oscar-winning documentary director Kartiki Gonsalves were honoured at the event. Several other social media influencers were also present at the event in Chennai.Mani Ratnams Ponniyin Selvan 2Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Vikram, Karthi, Trisha Krishnan, and other members of Mani Ratnams group cast has been promoting the sequel to Ponniyin Selvan, which is based on the epic of the same name written by Kalki Krishnamurthy. Ratnam created a two-part film adaptation of his four-part broadcast serial titled Ponniyin Selvan. The audience responded favourably to the movies opening act, which went on to become Tamil cinemas largest success story of the previous year.On April 28, Ponniyin Selvan 2 will be released in theatres.CII can unite South India and Indian Cinema: Udhayanidhi StalinUdhayanidhi Stalin, Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development, Government of Tamil Nadu, was also among the chief guests at the 2nd Edition CII Dakshin 2023, which was held by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Southern Region with the theme – Beyond Borders. Stalin said that “These are only a few of the actions the government is taking to support the media and entertainment sectors expansion.”Passion is reason for his greatness 💐 #CIIDakshin is honoured by the arrival of Minister @Udhaystalin 🙏 pic.twitter.com/NMgPVLE2Ft— CII Dakshin (@CiiDakshin) April 19, 2023He further said that the government of Tamil Nadu has allocated Rs 1.5 crore for the creation of a film city project. The model for the movie city will be a public-private partnership. Additionally, the government has upped the reward for making short films from Rs 50,000 to Rs 100,000 to encourage students to be more creative.Udhayanidhi Stalin, further added that the summits issue is extremely appropriate, and it can bring together not only the South Indian film and media industries but also the entire Indian film industry.
