“Ab rule Pushpa ka,” roared Allu Arjun in the video released on his birthday in 2023 to announce the sequel to the freak blockbuster Pushpa: The Rise. While his fee for Pushpa The Rise was around 45 crore rupees, Telugu superstar Allu Arjun has hiked his fee to nearly double that amount for the sequel.
And he deserved every penny of the padded payment. Allu Arjun was exceptionally effective as the forest-bred bandit who takes on the sandalwood mafia. Pushpa The Rise frequently has us scratching our heads in disbelief stretching all incredulity beyond breaking point to show the loutish hero making his way up the crime syndicate with the kind of street wisdom that wouldn’t fool a child from a primary school let alone all these hardened sadistic criminals who don’t just threaten to blow off their enemies’ heads, they go right ahead and do the dirty deed.
Standing tall in the morass of mayhem is Allu Arjun in a career-transformative performance, his slouching body language, his nervous dance moves and his gravelly dialogue delivery are all a marvel to behold. I would gladly look at Pushpa as a showcase for Arjun’s talents were it not for the film’s shoddy moral dynamics and the motorized mean machinery which steamrollers any of the work’s good intentions, if any.
The success of Pushpa was an epoch-defining moment in the history of Indian cinema.
A source close to the Allu family tells me, “Arjun’s equation with the box office changed after Pushpa. Though Pushpa The Rise was not such a grand hit in Andhra and Telangana its pan-India success placed him above Prabhas, Ram Charan and the other Telugu superstars in the all-India market.”
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In an interview with this writer in January 2020 Allu Arjun had said, “I am never going to step off the commercial platform. It is where my dreams were realized and as far I am concerned it is the commercial cinema that gives me all the success and fans.”
Speaking of fans, does it get too much to handle them? “Not at all. I love their attention. I am what I am because of the fans. They’ve made me into the person that I am today.”
Arjun had no plans of heading to Bollywood. “Don’t get me wrong. Bollywood is a lovely place. I love the work that’s being done there. A film like 3 Idiots is truly inspiring to me. There have been offers from Hindi cinema. But for me to take a break from my busy career in Telugu cinema it has to be something worth the effort. Maybe some day soon.”
Arjun’s daughter Arha made her acting debut alongside Samantha Ruth Prabhu in Shaakuntalam.
In 2020, I had asked Allu Arjun whether he would like it if his son and daughter showed an interest in acting. “I’d welcome it. Right now they’re too young. But when they’re old enough to choose their own path and if they tell me they want to be actors, I’d extend all support to them. I come from a family devoted to cinema. My grandfather gave his life to the movies. And my father is completely devoted to producing films. For me cinema is life.”
