The huge success of the ‘Baahubali’ series sparked the trend of sequels becoming increasingly popular. ‘Baahubali 2’ was not only a commercial success in Tollywood, but it also set a new standard for Indian film as a whole. Since then, sequels have developed as a guaranteed recipe for attracting large audiences in all South Indian film industries.
In Kollywood, ‘2.0’, the sequel to ‘Robo’, made ripples and stood out as an industry hit. Sandalwood had similar success with ‘KGF Chapter 2’, which dominated box office nationwide. Recently, in Mollywood, ‘Empuraan’, the much-anticipated sequel to ‘Lucifer’, broke records previously held by ‘Manjummel Boys’, emerging as the next industry hit.
The sequel wave isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Tollywood has officially announced massive projects like ‘Salaar 2’, ‘Kalki 2’, ‘Jai Hanuman’, and ‘Pushpa 3’. Kollywood is gearing up with ‘Jailer 2’ and ‘Kaithi 2’. Sandalwood continues the legacy with ‘Kantara 2’ and ‘KGF Chapter 3’, while Mollywood plans to extend the ‘Lucifer’ universe with ‘L3’.
With many other sequels also under production, it’s clear that the South Indian film industry is in the golden era of franchise cinema, where continuity is driving creativity and commercial success alike.