What Allu Arjun said about Pushpa competing with Spider-Man No Way Home: ‘More bothered about…’

Actor Allu Arjun has said though his latest film Pushpa: The Rise will face off with Spider-Man: No Way Home, he is looking forward to the audience going back to theatres, a culture he believes is currently on the decline.

The first part of Arjun’s multilingual action thriller Pushpa opened in cinemas on Friday, a day after Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home fronted by Tom Holland.

During a special event of the film, Arjun said it’s 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 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 the 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 film chronicles the red sanders heist in the hills of Andhra Pradesh 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 include 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.

Also Read | Pushpa The Rise review: Allu Arjun is terrific, ends 2021 with one of the most entertaining movies of the year

Pushpa: The Rise also stars Rashmika Mandanna and Fahadh Faasil. Produced by Mythri Movie Makers in association with Muttamsetty Media, the film released in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada and Malayalam.

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