Telugu-cinema Superstar Allu Arjun on Thursday said though his latest Pushpa: The Rise will face off with the Hollywood biggie Spider-Man: No Way Home, he is looking forward to the audience flocking back to theatres, a culture he believes is currently on the decline.
The first part of Arjun's multilingual action thriller Pushpa is scheduled to open in cinemas on Friday, a day after the much-awaited Sony-Marvel superhero movie headlined by Tom Holland.
During a special event of the film in Mumbai, Allu Arjun said it is important the audience makes the journey to theatres for the culture of watching in a cinema hall to thrive, irrespective of the film.
"We are in a situation right now where today in India, and world over, the culture of people coming to cinemas has gone down. I am not looking at Pushpa or another film, I am looking at Indian cinema. Cinema should win and not just Indian cinema, but world cinema overall," the actor told reporters.
The 39-year-old star said that he hopes tent-pole films like Spider-Man, Pushpa: The Rise or the Kabir Khan-directed cricket drama 83, set to release next Friday, go on to become a huge draw at the box office.
"I think Spiderman… should get people back to theatres, Pushpa should get Indian people back into theatres. It is about celebrating cinema back again. There is also 83 next week. I wish them all the best. I hope it brings people back to theatres. I also would like to congratulate Hindi cinema for the success of Sooryavanshi. I am more bothered about cinema right now than Pushpa itself," Arjun added.
Pushpa reunites Arjun with Sukumar, the director behind his 2004 blockbuster movie Arya. The soon-to-be-released film chronicles the red sanders heist in the hills of Andhra and depicts the convoluted nexus that unfurls in the course of the narrative of a man who is taken by avarice.
Arjun said working on Pushpa was a challenging experience. "It's a difficult film to shoot. We were shooting in a forest with around 500 people. The logistics including providing food, accommodation... Keeping the sanitisation and following all protocols was really difficult. I have always maintained that shooting for this film was equivalent to shooting for four films," he added.
Pushpa: The Rise also stars Rashmika Mandanna and Fahadh Faasil. Produced by Mythri Movie Makers in association with Muttamsetty Media, the film will be released in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, and Malayalam.
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Mallika Sherawat poses outside the White House in a pink ombre dress Instagram/mallikasherawat 
Mallika Sherawat poses at the White House in a pink ombre dress Instagram/mallikasherawat 
