Mumbai, April 16 (IANS) Actors and actresses of North and South Indian film industries joining hands is not new. Bollywood and South stars collaborating on screen has been a trend in the past with the likes of Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, Prabhu Deva, and many others collaborating with Aishwarya Rai, Deepika Padukone, Sonakshi Sinha, Manisha Koirala, Raveena Tandon and Kajol etc.

While the trend had slowed down in between, the new generation of stars seem to be reviving the idea. Calling it the "pan-India" film for maximum reach, many new-generation stars from North and South are coming together in some of the biggest ventures, over the coming months. The idea, of course, is to maximise audience base and revenues at a time uncertainty rules over the film business.

Over the next months, Vijay Deverakonda stars with Ananya Panday in Liger, while Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn will seen in RRR with Ram Charan and Jr NTR. Prabhas, Kriti Sanon and Saif Ali Khan co-star in Adipurush, and Prabhas teams up with Amitabh Bachchan and Deepika Padukone in an untitled film. These are just a few instances.

The trend has ensured such films are released in multiple languages such as Hindi, Tamil Telugu and Malayalam -- which helps in reaching out to a bigger audience. This, in turn, helps stars gain fandom beyond their own respective region.

IANS takes a look at some of the biggest North-South collaborartions coming up in mainstream Indian cinema:

RRR

Bollywood actors Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn will be seen in this magnum opus by SS Rajamouli. The film also features South stars Ram Charan and Jr. NTR. The film is set against the backdrop of the independence era. The period drama centres around the life of freedom fighters Komaram Bheem and Alluri Sita Ramaraju. It will be released in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada and other Indian languages.

ADIPURUSH

Bollywood actors Kriti Sanon and Saif Ali Khan will be seen sharing screen space with Telugu star Prabhas in the film, reportedly an adaptation of Ramayan. Adipurush will be released in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada. Kriti is set to essay Sita while Saif will be seen essaying Ravan and Prabhas will feature as Lord Ram in the Om Raut directorial.

LIGER

Telugu star Vijay Deverakonda's upcoming ambitious action film also features Bollywood actress Ananya Panday. The film is set to release in five languages -- Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. It is scheduled to hit the screens on September 9. Vijay will be seen playing a boxer in the film directed by Puri Jagannadh directorial.

HAATHI MERE SAATHI

The film stars Rana Daggubati along with Hindi film actors such as Pulkit Samrat, Shriya Pilgaonkar and Zoya Hussain. It has three different titles for three different versions -- Haathi Mere Saathi is called Aranya in Telugu version and Kaadan in Tamil. The release of the Hindi version has been affected due to the spike in Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra.

UNTITLED AMITABH BACHCHAN-PRABHAS-DEEPIKA PADUKONE STARRER

Superstars Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone and Prabhas have joined hands for a mega multi-lingual film, which has not been titled yet. This is the first time Prabhas collaborates with Big B and Deepika. However, it has not been reported as to how many languages the film will release. The film is slated to open next year.

--IANS dc/vnc/